


Anarchy's Child

by FaithWinchester



Series: Anarchy [2]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), Sons of Anarchy, Supernatural
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:20:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 36,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24556810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FaithWinchester/pseuds/FaithWinchester
Summary: Second in the Anarchy SeriesIn which Dawn has a panic attack, Faith tells Dean about the Key and Dean has a temper tantrum.
Relationships: Clay Morrow/Gemma Teller Morrow, Faith Lehane/Dean Winchester, Jax Teller/Dawn Summers, Tara Knowles/Sam Winchester
Series: Anarchy [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1561843
Comments: 27
Kudos: 20





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> As usual, I do not own any recognizable characters and I'm not making any kind of profit from this. Still looking for a beta to help me with revisions and edits to my stuff, so if anyone's interested, send me a message! I work in a lot of different fandoms, so familiarity with any of them is a plus!
> 
> ***

Home. It seemed like forever since she’d been there, even though it’d only been a month. Laying on the bed in the crappy motel room, Faith picked up her cell phone to call her father for their ritual check in. She’d started off doing it for him, to let him know she was okay, but now she did it for herself as much as for Clay. It was like a lifeline, that voice on the phone, keeping her connected to her family, the people who loved her.

Before she could even dial, the phone started vibrating in her hand, playing Bon Jovi’s Wanted Dead or Alive. She smiled a little and hit the talk button.

“Jeez, Jax, I was just getting ready to call in,” she said.

“Faith, I need your help,” her brother blurted out and her smile died.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s Dawn,” he said and Faith went cold inside.

“What about her? Is she okay?” she asked, in a steady, low voice that belied the wild pounding of her heart against her ribcage.

“She’s gone.”

~*~

Dawn stared at the cell phone in her hand. It was vibrating. No, she was shaking. The phone was turned off to silence the constant sound of Jax’s ringtone as he tried to reach her. She’d run as fast and far as she could, ending up in a cheap motel at the edge of some desert town in New Mexico. She was exhausted and filthy and felt like she was going to shake apart in to a million pieces, but at least she was far from Charming, far from Jax and now she had a chance to pull herself together.

She put her finger on the power button and watched the phone light up. A moment later, the signal bars appeared and the phone began to chirp, alerting her to new voicemails. She was willing to bet they were all from Jax.

Dawn ignored the alert and dialed the familiar number, raising her trembling hand and putting the phone to her ear. It rang twice and then a loud, angry voice began shouting at her and Dawn had to smile.

“Dawnie, what the hell!? What happened? Where are you? Do you have any idea how freaked out everyone is?!”

“Faith, I need you,” Dawn said and Faith went quiet. Her next words were calmer and anyone else might’ve believed she’d cooled down but Dawn could hear the tension vibrating in her voice.

“What’s wrong? Did someone hurt you? Why’d you run? Was it Jax? What-“

“Faith, I’m pregnant.”

“Where are you? I’m coming to you.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for sticking with me on this! 
> 
> ***

~*~ A Month Earlier ~*~

Dawn closed her eyes against the wind and tightened her arms around Jax’s waist. The Harley rumbled beneath them, eating up the pavement. Jax slowed down as they rounded a corner and pulled the bike onto a dirt road. Dawn raised her head and opened her eyes, watching as he drove into a small clearing and parked the motorcycle. She climbed to the ground as he stopped and waited while he put the kickstand down. She pulled off her helmet and set it on the back of the motorcycle, pulling the elastic out of her hair and running her fingers through it to smooth the tangles. She then turned to Jax and held out her hand expectantly.

“Okay, hand it over,” she said and he gave her an exaggerated, long suffering sigh, then put his cell phone in her hand. She hit the power button to turn it off, then pulled out her own phone and shut it down as well. She tucked both phones into Jax’s saddlebags and turned back to him. “Ready?”

“You mean for our ‘No phones, no interruptions day at the river’? You bet,” he said, giving her that little boy smile that said he was thinking about very adult things. She couldn’t help but grin back as he slid his arm around her waist and they started down the short trail to the river.

The sand was warm, the water was cool and Dawn’s swimsuit stayed on for a whole ten minutes before Jax threw it on the beach along with his shorts.

~*~

Dawn, lying on her towel in the sun, stretched her arms above her head and sighed, opening her eyes when a shadow fell over her. Her eyes widened and she drew a breath to scream, then a hand came down on her mouth to silence her and a heavy body dropped onto her, pinning her to the ground.

She shoved the hand off her mouth and then pushed at the bare chest above her, but her attacker didn’t budge.

“Jax, you’re cold, get off!” she shrieked, bucking beneath him, trying to dislodge him, but he only looked down at her with laughing blue eyes.

“So warm me up,” he suggested, dipping his head to kiss her. Her struggles ceased and she smiled against his mouth before returning the kiss. She stopped trying to push him away and threaded her fingers through his wet blond hair as his arms slid under her, pulling her harder against his chest, his wet skin feeling even colder against her own sun-warmed body. Not all of him was cold though and the evidence of that was pressing against her thigh. She sighed in satisfied defeat and shifted beneath him, wrapping long legs around his waist and urging him closer.

They’d spent the day in this secluded place on the river, making love and being alone together, a difficult thing to do with a life a busy as theirs. Between working at the garage and his vice-presidency of the Sons of Anarchy, they didn’t get a whole lot of time to themselves. So she’d asked him for today, a day with no phones or interruptions, just the two of them. They hadn’t even told anyone where they were going, so no one was coming looking for them. Once their clothes had come off, they hadn’t bothered putting them back on, swimming and playing, napping on the sand. She’d lost track of the times they’d made love and that was fine with her- and so was adding once more to the count.

Jax’s mouth was hot on her throat, her breasts and Dawn moaned aloud when his teeth scraped over her nipple, her fingers clenching in his hair. Her skin was over sensitive from the rasp of his beard throughout the day and every touch seemed magnified by a thousand. She felt his fingers slide over her stomach and lower and when he touched her center, her hips arched into his hand instinctively.

“Jax, please,” came her breathy sigh and he smiled, raising his head and kissing her again before he slowly pressed inside her.

~*~

Heaven. Bliss. The sweetest torture. Dawn was all those things and more. She was no shy, blushing virgin, but she somehow managed to keep an air of innocence around her. Every time he touched her, he felt like he was being trusted with something valuable and fragile. He’d said it out loud once and Opie had just stared at him for a minute before telling him in no uncertain terms that he was done for. He hadn’t argued, just agreed that, yeah, he was head over heels, irrevocably in love with Dawn Summers.

Her face was flushed, body warm beneath him, around him and Jax kissed her, swallowing her cry as her entire body tensed and her nails dug into his back. He groaned against her mouth a moment later as he found his own release and spilled into her. He held her tightly and rolled to the side, carrying her with him. Dawn gave a shuddery sigh and her whole body melted against him, relaxed, her head resting on his chest, eyes falling shut. Warmed by the sun and by Dawn, Jax closed his eyes.

He had no idea how long they lay there, but when he opened his eyes again, the sun was sinking low and the warm breeze that had been blowing gently all day was cooling off. It seemed their day at the river was coming to an end. Raising up on one elbow, he kissed Dawn awake and they both got reluctantly to their feet. They brushed the sand off one another before dressing in their clothes that had long since dried in the sun and trekked back up the trail to the Harley. Dawn pulled the phones out of the bag and handed his over. They both were reluctant to turn them on, but the real world was calling them back. As soon as they powered up, both phones began chirping alerts for missed calls and voicemails. Dawn sighed and slid her phone into her pocket without scrolling through the alerts. Jax looked sideways at her and she shrugged.

“My special day isn’t over until we’re back in Charming,” she said, stubbornly and he smiled at her, slipping his own phone into his pocket. They buckled on their helmets and mounted the bike and Jax took his time getting them home.

~*~

Two weeks after their day at the river, Dawn checked the mailbox at the garage and carried in a stack of envelopes. Most of them were addressed to Teller-Morrow, probably payments from customers and bills from suppliers and whatnot. One was addressed to Jax, though and she recognized Faith’s handwriting on the envelope. 

The Slayer and her brother had grown fairly close over the last year and Faith regularly sent him snapshots from wherever she and the Winchesters happened to be at the moment. It was just another way of checking in with her family, but Jax kept all the pictures, throwing them in a shoebox that he kept under the bed. He didn’t know it, but she’d been snapping polaroids herself and adding them to the box, pictures of the Sons, of Clay and Gemma, even one or two she’d taken of herself. Eventually she was going to put together a scrapbook for him, but for now, she wasn’t saying anything about it. Smiling, she carried the envelope into the garage bay and found Jax under the hood of a pickup, changing the spark plug cables.

“Got a letter, Jax,” she said, smiling and he straightened and grabbed the grease rag from the top of the toolbox, cleaning his hands and then taking the envelope from her.

“You’re the only girl I know who’s happy about her old man getting polaroids in the mail from another woman,” he said and she laughed.

“Believe me, baby, if she wasn’t your sister, I’d be tracking down the return address and doing some damage,” she promised him.

There was no letter, just a picture with Faith’s scrawl on the bottom “On the road, Miss you Jax!” The picture was of Dean and Faith, probably just waking up, in the front seat of the Impala. Dean was wearing sunglasses and looked fairly hung over and Faith was propped up on her elbows, looking like she’d just lifted her head from resting on Dean’s lap. Sam had to have taken the picture, because Faith looked tired and grumpy and not exactly in the picture taking mood. She was wearing a rumpled men’s dress shirt and Dawn was fairly certain it was the one that went with Dean’s fake FBI suit. Faith was famous for raiding his clothes.

Jax sighed and shook his head.

“Just what I wanted, a picture of my sister waking up with her boyfriend,” he said, rolling his eyes.

“Be glad they’re dressed,” Dawn advised and Jax groaned, closing his eyes at the thought of them NOT being dressed in the picture.

“Good point,” he agreed.

“Dawn!” Gemma called out from the office doorway. “You missed a letter for yourself!”

Dawn kissed Jax’s cheek quickly.

“Get back to work before the owner kicks your butt,” she told him with a smile, turning to make her way back to the office. He caught her wrist and yanked her back, giving her a real kiss, fingers tangling in her hair, beard rasping against her face. It took a second for her to catch her breath when he pulled back and she heard a few catcalls from the other guys in the garage as she turned with a smile and walked back to the office.

Gemma was grinning knowingly when she walked in, but said nothing about the kiss, just handed Dawn the envelope. She glanced at the return address and saw the name of her doctor’s office. Her brow furrowed, she broke the seal and pulled out the folded letter.

~*~

Gemma watched as the well-kissed flushed smile faded from Dawn’s face. Her color drained, leaving her pale and scared looking and Gemma moved to her side, gently taking the paper from her and looking down at the neatly typed words.

“Dear Ms. Summers,

We regret to inform you that there has been a terrible mistake concerning your healthcare. The Depo Provera shot that you received last month was part of a batch that had been recalled by the manufacturer due to a mistake during processing that would render it ineffective in preventing pregnancy. Please call our office right away to schedule an appointment and receive another dose, along with any other care you may require.

Thank You,

The concerned staff of Dr. Felton’s office”

Gemma looked up from reading the letter aloud and met Dawn’s shell-shocked gaze with an open mouthed stare of her own.

“Oh, Dawn, honey,” she said, softly and watched as tears filled those big blue eyes.

“What am I gonna do, Gemma?” Dawn asked, as the tears overflowed and made tracks down her cheeks.

“We don’t know anything for sure, baby,” Gemma told her, putting an arm around her shoulders and drawing her close.

“There’s no way, Gemma, no way in hell it didn’t happen. That day at the river…” she faltered and closed her eyes in defeat. Gemma stroked a hand over her hair.

“It’ll be okay, Dawn,” she said. “You don’t have to make any decisions right now.” It hurt like hell for Gemma to say those words, knowing it was her grandchild she was talking about, but she had to. It was Dawn’s choice, Dawn’s body and Gemma knew better than most that only Dawn could make the final decision.

“You can’t tell anyone, Gemma, please,” Dawn said, her head resting on the older woman’s shoulder. “Don’t tell Jax. Not yet.”

“I won’t, Dawn. I promise,” Gemma said.


	3. Chapter 3

~*~

Faith stomped into the motel room and groaned, dropping her knife on the table beside the bed. Dean followed her into the room and kicked the door shut behind him. She didn’t wait for him to put his guns away, just walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower. A glance in the mirror showed her that the slime that covered her skin was drying to a sticky mess in her hair and she made a face, stripping away her clothes with a promise to herself to burn them later. She stepped under the hot spray and immediately began shampooing her hair. A moment later, she heard the thump of Dean’s boots hitting the floor and the rustle of his clothes being shed and then he got into the shower with her and the usual struggle over the spray began, both of them nudging the other out of the way. And as usual, they struggled until it led to playing and combined the careful washing of one another with kissing and stroking, until getting clean became something a little dirtier and a whole lot more fun.

They stayed in the shower until the water turned cold and then made their way, naked and still dripping, to the bed. It was hours before they dressed and emerged from the room and went looking for Sam. They found him at the local diner, where they’d been eating for the last few days while they hunted down the slimy demon’s nest. They’d finally found and destroyed it, beheading the smelly thing before it could kill any more people.

“Faith, you left your phone in the car again and Dawn called,” Sam said as she slid into the booth across from him and stole a French fry off his plate. She snatched up the phone and speed dialed Dawn’s number while she chewed. Dawn answered on the second ring.

“Faith?”

“Hey, Dawnie, what’s up?” she asked. “I’m not supposed to check in till tomorrow.”

“N- nothing’s up. I just wanted to talk to you,” came Dawn’s voice and Faith paused in her chewing, swallowing the fry.

“You okay? You sound upset,” she said, cautiously. Dawn’s voice sounded sort of muffled, like she’d been crying.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Dawn assured her and Faith conceded that may be she had a cold or something. Dawn didn’t usually lie to her.

“Okay, if you’re sure,” she said.

“I’m sure. Just… needed to hear your voice. So, what’ve you been hunting?”

Faith launched into the story of the Stinky Slime Demon as she called it and had Dawn laughing in about sixty seconds. She kept her voice somewhat low, since she was in the diner, but she gave her the gory details of getting covered in goo when they smashed the demon’s eggs, which sort of exploded when broken. At the end of the call, Dawn seemed her normal self and when Faith said goodbye, promising to call Clay tomorrow for her usual check in, she had forgotten the tears in Dawn’s voice and her feeling that something might be wrong.

~*~

Talking to Faith had been a good idea. Dawn was able to laugh and smile and act like herself after that, so when Jax left work, he had no idea anything was wrong. Part of her wished she’d told Faith what was happening, but she’d decided to keep it to herself until she knew for sure. She wasn’t late yet, so she’d wait another week before panicking. A test wouldn’t show anything until then anyway, so she resolutely tried to shove the fear into the back of her mind.

That worked, for a while, until it began creeping out of its cage during the night, in her dreams. She dreamed of herself, pregnant and green light shining from her skin, of portals that ripped through the fabric of reality, of monsters that tore through the barriers between worlds and destroyed everything she loved. She’d wake up sweating and fighting for breath, her pillow wet with tears. She was able to brush it off, tell Jax she’d just had a nightmare about some random monster that she’d come up against with Faith. There was no way she could tell him the truth.

Because the truth was that she wasn’t human. She hadn’t been born, she’d been made. The only reason Buffy was her sister was because some monks took her DNA and used it to shove an age-old energy into a girl-shaped mold. All the memories that her friends and family had of her before the age of fifteen were fabricated, shoved into their heads by the same magic that had made the Key into a human girl. Faith didn’t have any memories of her, because she’d been in a coma when Dawn was created. In many ways, Faith was her only real friend from childhood because she’d met Dawn as a teenager and they’d built their friendship from scratch, not from fake memories designed to make the Slayer protect her. She’d never told anyone the truth since leaving home, never shared the fact that she wasn’t exactly real. Faith told her that where she came from didn’t matter. She smiled and cried and hurt and bled and she was human. Just because she attracted trouble like a freaking magnet didn’t make her anything other than a girl. Faith was convinced that it wasn’t the power of the Key that made everyone and their demon brother want to kidnap her, but the fact that she was beautiful and looked fragile and innocent.

She’d grown tired of the constant supervision that Buffy and the others had forced on her, sick of coming home to find out they’d had Willow tracking her with a spell the whole time she’d been shopping or that Xander had been spying the whole time she’d been on a date with a guy she’d met. The final straw was Buffy’s last attempt to both make Dawn happy and keep her firmly under her own protection.

Buffy had gone and found a man, sort of mail-ordered him, actually. He was a Watcher in training that happened to be very good looking and a damn good actor to boot. She’d brought him over from Ireland (because what girl could resist a good accent) and explained that Dawn needed constant guarding, but that she’s gotten really good at dodging anyone who tried to protect her. She told him exactly what Dawn looked for in a guy, information she’d found in Dawn’s diary and set up a supposedly accidental meeting.

The trick had worked, for a while. She’d met Kevin on the subway in Cleveland, on her way back to Slayer Central. He’d given her his number and while she usually threw a number from a strange guy straight into the trash, for some reason, she kept it. She actually called him a few days later and they’d gone on a few dates. She started to fall for him and ended up sleeping with him. They ‘dated’ for three months and Dawn had been, for the first time in her life, happy. She supposed she should have been suspicious that Buffy hadn’t fought harder against the relationship, but she wanted so much to have a normal life, that she managed to block it out. It wasn’t until she heard him one day on the phone, talking to someone back in Ireland that there were “perks to working for the Slayer” that she let herself see that something wasn’t right. She’d left his apartment then, without a word to him and gone straight back to Slayer Central, picking the lock on the office door and digging through the file cabinet until she found a file labeled ‘Kevin’. Inside, she found some random paperwork, his birth certificate, a copy of his passport. It sort of looked like someone had done a background check on him, which, to Buffy, would seem like perfectly acceptable behavior when trying to protect Dawn. Irritated at the thought, Dawn kept digging until she found a small white business card with the name “Rain Dawson” in neat black letters and a phone number.

She called the number and told the man who answered that she needed to speak to Rain Dawson. When he asked for her name, she told him Buffy Summers. A woman came on a moment later and Dawn did the best imitation of her sister’s voice that she could when she said hello. The woman spoke quickly, her voice bright and cheerful.

“Well, hi, Buffy! How did it go? Did the spell work okay? Is your sister happy with Kevin?”

That was all Dawn had needed to hear. She’d hung up before Rain Dawson had even finished speaking, disbelief, hurt and betrayal making it hard to breathe. They’d done a spell on her. Buffy had used magic to make her like Kevin. She’d brought Kevin into her life on purpose. It had all been a setup, from that first day on the subway.

Dawn ran that night, packing a duffel bag and sneaking out in the middle of the night. She turned off her cell phone so they couldn’t use the GPS to find her and stole a charm from Giles’ office that she knew would block any tracking spell they tried to use. She didn’t call home for a week and by that time, she’d been in California, clear across the country.

It didn’t matter how many times Buffy apologized or Xander and Willow swore they didn’t know. She told them all in no uncertain terms that she wasn’t coming back and if they tried to make her, she’d only run again and this time she wouldn’t bother calling to let them know she was alive. In the end, Giles had taken the phone from a hysterical Buffy. He told her in a quiet voice where to find Faith, an address in a town called Charming and asked her to please call them often. She could hear Buffy railing at him in the background, but she knew Giles would manage to calm her down eventually. Grateful that at least one person seemed to be on her side, or at least able to accept her decision, Dawn had promised him she’d track down Faith.

When she’d found the Slayer in Charming, four days later, she’d been ready to pour out the whole sad story and ask if she could stick with Faith for a while. Then she’d met Jax and Gemma and Clay and the rest of the guys. She’d seen Faith struggling to accept the fact that she’d been accepted and couldn’t put her own problems on her friend’s shoulders. She’d come to care about them all, to be part of Faith’s new family and she couldn’t bring herself to ruin it by telling anyone the truth.

And now here she was, in another impossible situation. There was no doubt she was pregnant, not if the birth control was defective. There had been too many nights, the day at the river and she and Jax weren’t a whole lot better than Faith and Dean with the self-control, she had to admit to herself. It wasn’t the idea of a baby that terrified her. She loved babies and she’d always thought one day she’d like to have a family of her own. She wasn’t worried about how Jax would take the news of being a father, either. She was pretty sure he’d be okay and she knew he’d make a great dad. She didn’t have to worry about how they’d raise a baby. They both worked at the garage and SAMCRO took care of it’s own, in any case. No, she didn’t have any of the usual problems a girl in her situation usually had. The real worry, the thing that had her waking in a cold sweat every night was that she wasn’t human and that meant that there was little to no chance that her pregnancy would be normal. Eventually, there would be something, some sign or show of power and then her secret would be out and this life, this home she’d found could be lost to her forever.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not good at author notes. Still looking for a beta for this stuff. Thanks for sticking with me!

~*~

Dawn was a nervous wreck. Gemma was amazed that Jax didn’t seem to notice. The girl was pale, had lost weight and was dressing in plain jeans and baggy t-shirts instead of her usual colorful, flirty style. Her eyes looked big and haunted and her movements were quick and nervous and Jax just kissed her cheek and sauntered out to the garage bay to start work. Gemma closed the office door and turned to Dawn.

“How you doing, honey?” she asked, quietly. It’d been almost two weeks since the letter from the doctor had arrived.

“I’m scared,” Dawn admitted, quietly. “I bought some tests, but I haven’t done them yet.”

“I’ll lock the door then, so we can have some privacy. Use the bathroom here in the office,” Gemma said, clicking the lock button on the doors and drawing the shades. Dawn sighed and grabbed her purse, taking it with her into the bathroom.

Gemma waited in the office, sitting at the desk and pretending to work, tapping her pencil absently. Fifteen minutes later, Dawn emerged, even more pale than before, her eyes wide and shiny with unshed tears and Gemma didn’t even have to ask. She simply held out her arms and Dawn walked into them.

~*~

Her whole world was coming down around her and Dawn was fighting to breathe. Her chest hurt and the tears just wouldn’t stop. Gemma had held her and let her cry for what seemed like forever. Of course, she’d known the tests would be positive, because she’d learned long ago that when it came to her life, to always expect the worse case scenario. To have it staring up at her, though, a pink plus sign that seemed ten feet tall was like being kicked in the chest.

With difficulty, she stepped away from Gemma and wiped her face with her hands, roughly.

“I have to go,” she said and Gemma nodded.

“Okay, honey, you go on home. I’ll cover for you here,” she told her.

Dawn nodded and grabbed her purse, quickly leaving the building and heading over to the clubhouse, but instead of crawling into bed and bawling her eyes out, she opened the closet and grabbed her duffel bag. It didn’t take long to pack her things, just her clothes and a few small personal items. She felt guilty, sneaking out of the clubhouse, looking around to make sure none of the guys were there to witness her leaving.

It was only a few blocks to the bus station and Dawn held her breath the whole way, praying that none of the Sons rode by and saw her. She made it inside the small building in ten minutes and bought a ticket to Redwood City.

~*~

“What do you mean, she’s gone?” Gemma asked Jax. He was sitting in one of her kitchen chairs, his elbows on his knees, running his hands through his hair over and over, agitatedly.

“I mean I got off work and went back to our room and all her stuff is gone. She’s not answering her cell and no one’s seen her,” he said and his voice was tinged with confusion, anger and just a little bit of panic.

Gemma sighed and sat down in the chair beside him, scooting it around so she could face him. She took his hands in her own and he looked at her as she spoke.

“Jax, Dawn’s dealing with some things right now and I thought she was okay, but maybe she just needs some time to herself,” Gemma told him. Inside she was praying fervently that Dawn hadn’t decided to get rid of the baby. She knew it was Dawn’s choice and she wouldn’t hold it against her if she was, but dammit, it was Jax’s child, her own flesh and blood.

“What things?” Jax demanded, but Gemma shook her head.

“I promised I wouldn’t tell and I’m keeping that promise,” Gemma said, resolutely.

“Then what the hell am I supposed to do!?” he demanded, exploding out of his chair to pace the room.

  
”What’s going on?” Clay asked, walking into the room.

“Dawn ran away,” Gemma told him and Clay looked to Jax.

“Why?”

“I don’t know! She just disappeared!” Jax said.

“You know anything about this?” Clay asked Gemma and she sighed.

“I might, but I made a promise to keep it to myself. She probably just needs some time,” Gemma said. Clay looked at her for a moment, then nodded, slowly.

“Okay, then. Give her two days, Jax. If she’s not back by then, we’ll call in your sister.”

~*~ Present~*~

Jax’s phone call to say Dawn was missing had sent Faith into a near panic, but Dawn’s call, less than an hour later, had completely freaked her out. Pregnant. The Key was going to have a baby. She knew for a fact Dawn hadn’t told Jax or anyone else about her mystical past. Hell, she hadn’t told Dean or Sam for that matter. She couldn’t take the chance that Dawn’s origins would take her out of the “Human” category and put her into the “Hunted.” She was pretty sure Sam would accept it, but Dean tended to see things more in black and white.

They came through the door while she was packing, bags of food in hand and stopped dead when they saw what she was doing.

“Faith, what’s going on?” Sam asked, cautiously.

“I have to go, Dawn needs me,” she said, never pausing in shoving her things into her duffel.

“Why? Is she okay?” Dean asked, setting the bags of food on the table.

“No, she’s definitely not okay,” Faith said, zipping the bag closed.

“Then give us ten minutes and we’ll be ready to go, as soon as you tell us what’s wrong,” Dean told her, but Faith shook her head.

“I can’t, you wouldn’t understand,” she said, finally looking at him.

“Try me,” Dean demanded and Faith closed her eyes, drawing a deep breath and letting it out slowly. When she opened her eyes again, Dean was still standing in front of her, waiting and she met his gaze directly as she started to speak.

“Once upon a time there was a Key and someone wanted to use it to do real bad things. So a bunch of monks took the Key and used it to make a girl, hiding the energy inside her. They sent her to the Slayer in the form of a sister and changed everyone’s memories so that they would believe this teenager who had popped into their lives had always been there. Even the girl didn’t know she was different.

“Long story short, they found out the truth, beat the bad guy and lived not so happily ever after. Now she’s in trouble and she needs me and I’m going,” Faith said, bluntly.

“Wait a minute, are you telling me that this ‘Key’ is Dawn?” Dean asked and she could see the beginnings of anger in his eyes.

“Yeah, that’s what I’m telling you,” she told him, evenly.

“So, Dawn isn’t human?” Sam asked and Faith narrowed her eyes at him.

“She’s human, Sam. She bleeds and she hurts and she says silly shit just because it pops into her head. She remembers being a little kid and skinning her knee and annoying her sister. She’s a normal girl.”

“Except she’s also a magical Key,” Dean snapped, sarcastically. “So, Keys are for opening things. What does she open?”

The glare Faith gave him would have stopped other men in their tracks, but Dean was far too stubborn to back down.

“Her blood is a pretty powerful ingredient in some nasty spells. They do all kinds of bad shit, like ripping through dimensions, but that doesn’t have anything to do with Dawn,” Faith said.

“Oh, that’s just awesome,” Dean said, green eyes flashing angrily.

“Dean, calm down,” Sam said, in that ‘talk the man back off the ledge’ sort of tone. Faith was looking pretty furious herself and if he’d learned anything about the Slayer in the year and half they’d known her, it was that she was most dangerous when her family was threatened.

“Don’t tell me to calm down, Sammy! She’s been lying to us, dammit, since day one!” Dean shouted and that, Sam realized, was the root of Dean’s anger. He felt betrayed by the one person outside of his family that he thought he could trust. It didn’t matter that Faith had only tried to protect Dawn, there hadn’t been full disclosure and Dean was going to take it personally.

“Dawn Summers is a human girl! It doesn’t matter what she started out as, Dean! She’s Dawn, our Dawn, the girl Sam crushed on for six months, the same girl who helped us with who the hell knows how many cases by doing the research that we couldn’t! She’s one of the good guys and she’d stand by any of us in a heartbeat, against anything,” Faith said, hefting her bag onto her shoulder. “Now she needs me to stand by her and I’m going.”

“Faith, wait,” Sam said, as she walked out the door. He turned a helpless gaze on Dean. “Dammit, Dean, go after her!”

“No,” Dean said, stubbornly. “She lied to us, Sammy. She let us believe Dawn was just a normal girl and suddenly we find out she’s this big mystical energy? That her blood is some sort of magic elixir that tears through dimensions? Tell me what’s normal about that!”

“Dean, come on, this is Faith and Dawn,” Sam argued, but his brother turned away, opened the bag on the table and started taking his food out. Sam watched, incredulous, as Dean sat down and started eating. With a groan, he turned and headed out the door that Faith had left standing open.

She was halfway down the block already, but his long stride closed the distance quickly.

“Faith!” he said. She turned and he swore he saw a glimmer of tears in her dark eyes before she blinked them away.

“What’s up, Sam?” she asked, her voice suspiciously hoarse.

“Look, I’ll try to talk to him, okay? He’s just… upset. I know he’ll be okay once he has time to-“

“Don’t, Sam. Don’t make excuses for him. He’s pissed because I didn’t tell him the whole story on Dawn and it doesn’t matter that he’d have done the same if it was you,” Faith said.

“But it’s not fair. I know Dawn. It doesn’t matter what she was before. He’ll see that, eventually and remember that he cares about her too.”

Faith sighed and closed her eyes for a moment, then looked at him with a wry, humorless smirk.

“You let me know when that day comes, okay, Sam?”

~*~


	5. Chapter 5

~*~

The bus was hot and smelled like feet, but it was carrying her closer to Dawn and that was what counted. She’d left Sam standing on the sidewalk, watching her walk away, with a promise that she’d call when she got to Dawn. He promised in turn to call Faith as soon as Dean saw the light, but she wasn’t holding her breath on that one. She’d been waiting since the moment she realized how much he meant to her for the day that would end them. She’d known, as soon as she actually cared, she’d find some way to screw it up. She was still waiting to screw up with Clay and the others, but so far, they’d stubbornly managed not to be driven away.

Suddenly exhausted, Faith leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes. Her duffel was on the seat beside her instead of under the bus with everyone else’s. She’d stubbornly refused to stow it, even going so far as to offer to pay for it to have it’s own seat. The lady at the ticket booth had just sighed and eventually given in. Trying to block out the bad smell, the heat and the sound of a baby crying in the back of the bus, Faith took a deep breath and forced her body to relax, one muscle at a time. It was a long ride to New Mexico.

~*~

Spalding, New Mexico was barely a dot on the map and Faith had to hitch a ride from Las Cruces. She got lucky and was picked up by a nice woman in a minivan with two little kids in the backseat. The woman was only a few years older than Faith and talked non stop, mostly about her kids and her husband, subjects that Faith could only nod and agree about, since she had no experience with either children or husbands. She wanted to tell the woman that it wasn’t safe to pick up hitchhikers, especially with her kids in the car, but she kept her mouth shut and just thanked the Powers That Be that she didn’t have to fight off a horny truck driver or listen to a sanctimonious lecture about how young ladies like her shouldn’t be out on the road alone.

She told Barbara, her knight-in-dusty-minivan, that she was on her way to her sister, who’d run away from home and was hiding out in a little hole in the wall motel in Spalding. It was fairly close to the truth and Barbara had thought it a worthy enough cause that she drove thirty miles out of her way to take Faith straight there. When they pulled up in front of the aptly named “Desert Plains” motel, Faith tried to hand the woman a twenty for gas, but she refused, saying that she had a little sister too and if their situations were reversed, she hoped someone would do the same for her.

Feeling strangely humbled, Faith got out of the van, grabbed her bag from the back and received two adorable, if slightly sticky hugs from the kids. Waving goodbye, she watched the van disappear from sight before she turned and scanned the front of the motel for the right room. Number seven was easy enough to find and she rapped lightly on the door.

The curtains twitched as someone peeked outside and the door slowly opened to reveal Dawn, wearing cutoff jeans and a huge t-shirt that had to belong to Jax. She was barefoot, her hair disheveled and her eyes puffy and red from crying. Mutely, she stepped back, holding the door open and Faith walked inside the stuffy room, blinking at the sudden darkness compared to the harsh sunlight outside. Dawn closed the door behind her and Faith looked at her carefully.

The younger woman looked pale, drawn and Faith thought she might’ve even lost some weight. She’d obviously been crying and her eyes looked… empty, Faith decided, like they’d lost that spark of life that had always been there. Dropping her duffel on the worn carpet, Faith reached out and then Dawn was hugging her, squeezing her around the neck so tightly, so desperately that Faith was having a hard time breathing. She hugged her back and led her in a sideways shuffle to the bed, where she all but forced her to sit.

“I’m here, Dawn,” she said and Dawn nodded, pulling back and visibly trying to get herself under control. Faith waited until she’d wiped her face and begun breathing evenly again instead of in hiccupping sobs before she spoke. “Now, tell me exactly what happened.”

~*~

Jax was going insane. He paced through the clubhouse like a caged animal, snapping at anyone who got close to him. Faith had called to let him know Dawn was safe and he’d been going over the call in his head ever since then.

_ “Faith? Did you find her?” he’d blurted as soon as he answered the phone. _

_ “She called me. I’m on my way there now,” Faith told him, her voice sounded strangely tinny. _

_   
_ _ ”Where are you?” _

_ “I’m on a bus, Jax and that’s all I’m telling you. I’ll bring her back when she’s ready, I promise,” Faith said. _

_ “But she’s okay, right?” he’d asked and he heard his sister give a long-suffering sigh. _

_ “She will be, okay, Jax? Just calm down. I’ll call you again in a day or so.” _

_ Then she hung up and Jax was left listening to dead air. _

The entire universe was working against him. Something was wrong with Dawn, there had to be, to make her run away like this. His mother knew what it was and he suspected she’d told Clay, but they weren’t talking. Faith knew, now as well and she wouldn’t tell him anything either. He was angry and scared and he needed to know what was going on, what had gone wrong.

A large hand on his shoulder startled him and he turned around swinging. Opie was ready for it and caught his fist.

“Shit, you’re jumpy,” Opie said and Jax lowered his fist and raked his fingers roughly through his hair.

“Yeah, sorry.”

“Clay says he wants us on tonight’s run,” Opie told him and Jax shook his head.

“I can’t. I need to be here.”

“Hey, man, take it up with Clay,” Opie replied.

~*~

Clay made him go.

“You can’t sit around here and mope until she comes back. Faith is with her, she’ll be okay,” Clay said and sent Jax, Opie and Juice to Washington to guard a shipment of AK’s on the road.

Gemma watched the three of them leave, following the delivery truck out onto the highway and then looked at her husband.

“Think he’ll be able to keep it together?”

“He’ll do what needs doing,” Clay said. Then he looked over at Gemma. “You sure you don’t want to tell me what all this is about with Dawn?”

“It was a promise, baby,” Gemma said and Clay rolled his eyes on a sigh.

~*~

“So where are Dean and Sam?”

Dawn’s question was innocent, but it sent a sharp pain through her chest just the same and Faith sighed.

“Left them just outside of Nashville. Couple of witches got too big for their broomsticks and started messing with things they had no business with.”

“And they just let you leave without any questions asked, huh?” Dawn said, knowingly.

“I didn’t say that. There were questions… and some yelling,” Faith admitted. They were lying on the bed in the motel room, Faith spooned against Dawn’s back in the dark as they talked.

“I’m sorry, Faith,” said Dawn, softly.

“Not your fault, Dawnie. I’ll live. It’s not exactly the first time I’ve walked away from a guy,” Faith said, trying to make light of the subject. She’d once been pretty firm in her ‘get some and get gone’ policy, after all.

“First time it was a guy you loved, though,” Dawn said and Faith didn’t reply. She changed the subject instead.

“We gotta get you out of this bed, girlfriend,” Faith told her. “Go take a shower, put on some real clothes and then we’re getting you something to eat.”

“You’re bossy, you know that?” Dawn said and Faith could hear the smile in her voice.

“Yep, now move that ass. Time to quit moping and start taking care of business.”

Dawn was still smiling as she rolled off the bed and headed for the bathroom.

~*~

Dawn was on her second enchilada when she realized she was feeling human again. Faith had been right. Crawling out of bed and showering, putting on real clothes and brushing her hair had made a huge difference. She was still scared, still insanely terrified of losing everything she cared about, but at least she had a half a chance of facing it now that Faith was here with her.

“I have to go back to Charming.”

Faith raised an eyebrow and finished shoving her nachos in her mouth, chewing and swallowing before she answered.

“Figured that out on your own, huh? Good thing. I didn’t particularly want to tie you up and drag you kicking and screaming.”

“I bet Jax is freaking out,” Dawn said, guiltily.

“Yeah, but he’ll be okay. I texted him and let him know I was with you and you were safe,” Faith told her, before eating another cheese and guacamole covered chip.

“Faith, what am I gonna do?” Dawn asked, heaving a sigh.

“What do you want to do?” Faith countered. “You have choices here, girlfriend,” she told her, quietly.

Dawn realized a moment later what Faith meant and she shuddered, visibly.

“I’m keeping the baby, Faith. I couldn’t…” Dawn closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again and looking at Faith. “I’m keeping it.”

“What about Jax?” Faith asked.

“He’ll be a great dad,” Dawn said, automatically.

“Sure he will, once you tell him about the baby,” Faith said, raising an eyebrow.

“This means I have to tell them everything, doesn’t it?” Dawn asked, a forkful of enchilada hovering in front of her mouth.

“Yep, but I’ll be there with you. Just like you were there for me,” Faith reminded her and Dawn smiled, putting her fork in her mouth at last.

“So, how are we gonna get back home? I really, really don’t want to ride the bus again. The smell made the morning sickness about a million times worse,” Dawn said, shuddering at the thought.

Faith opened her mouth to tell her they’d figure it out, but her phone rang before she could speak. The ringtone was Sting, “I’ll Be Watching You” and she put the phone to her ear with a “Hey, Giles, what’s up?”

Giles’ voice was loud enough on the phone that Dawn, across the small table, could hear him just by leaning forward.

“Faith, I feel I need to alert you that we’ve had a security breach,” he said and Faith’s brow furrowed.

“Is everyone okay?”

“What? Oh, yes, everyone’s fine! I meant our digital files, not a physical breach! One of those hacker people, but the breach was fairly specific. They accessed Dawn’s file first, Willow tells me. I’ve kept her listed as an official Watcher, so her paycheck has continued to be deposited into her bank account regularly, along with the monthly allowance for her Slayer’s needs.”

“Her Slayer?” Faith repeated, confused.

“Well, yes, she’s on file as your Watcher, Faith.”

“Oh, okay, great, I guess. Anyway, was there anything in Dawn’s file that could be dangerous? Her address maybe?” Faith wanted to know.

“Well, no, her whereabouts are simply listed as ‘accompanying her Slayer’, for Dawn’s safety, given, well, you know, that she’s-“ Giles faltered and Faith looked at Dawn, who rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, Giles, I know,” Faith said, rescuing him. “So they didn’t learn anything they could use then.”

“No, I wouldn’t say that, exactly,” Giles said and Faith sighed.

“What do you mean, Giles?”

“Well, the hacker also accessed your file, Faith and the information about your father is listed there. They have his address in Charming.”

The smile faded from Faith’s face and she looked at Dawn. Her eyes were wide, worried and she put her fork down, her appetite gone.

“Giles, who could hack the Council’s server? That’s some serious protection to get through,” Dawn said, speaking at last.

“Dawn? Is that you?” Giles said, sounding startled.

“Answer the question, Giles,” Faith said.

“Willow says it was most likely someone on the inside, somewhere in one of our facilities.”

“Crap,” Dawn muttered.

“Thanks for the heads up, Giles. We gotta go,” Faith said and hung up on his goodbye, meeting Dawn’s worried gaze.

“We have to get back to Charming and let them know something’s coming,” Faith said.

“At least we don’t have to worry about how anymore. If I’ve been drawing pay and they’ve been depositing the check for you too for this long, then there’s quite a bit sitting in my account. I just never thought to check it after I left. We’ll buy a cheap car and drive home,” Dawn said, pushing away from the table and getting to her feet. Faith followed and they went to the front counter to pay for their meal. As the hostess handed them a receipt, Faith asked where they might be able to find a good car for cheap. The woman was nice and gave them the number of her brother in law, who had a small car he was trying to sell.

As they walked out of the restaurant, Dawn dialed the number on her cell phone and spoke to Raul, getting directions to his house. It was only a few blocks away and they walked there in ten minutes. The car was an early 90’s model Honda and he’d asked $500 for it. Dawn asked to test drive it and Faith climbed in the backseat while Raul rode shotgun.

It was a far cry from fancy, but the little car seemed to run well and Dawn stopped at a convenience store to use the ATM and draw out the cash. Raul wrote out a bill of sale and they dropped him off at his house. He was smiling and waving when they pulled away, driving back to the motel.

It only took a few minutes to pack Dawn’s things and throw her bags in the trunk with Faith’s duffel. They left the motel key on the desk and pulled out of the parking lot at 7pm, just as it was starting to get dark outside. Dawn insisted on driving the first shift and while Faith tried to close her eyes so she’d be rested for her turn behind the wheel, she found it impossible to actually sleep. Her head was spinning with the idea that someone or something might be headed for Charming, for her family.

~*~


	6. Chapter 6

~*~

They drove straight through to Phoenix and stopped at a gas station just off the freeway. They filled the gas tank and Faith got a cup of coffee. She got behind the wheel and Dawn curled up in the passenger seat, closing her eyes and falling into an exhausted sleep. Faith drove until she couldn’t keep her eyes open, stopping at a rest stop just past Bakersfield, California to sleep for a few hours. Dawn didn’t stir, not even four hours later when Faith woke up and got back on the highway, stopping twice for coffee and gas before she reached the Charming city limits.

It was around 5pm when she pulled into the parking lot of the Teller-Morrow garage and Dawn was still sleeping, the deep, exhausted sleep of children and, apparently, pregnant women. Faith got out of the car, stretching, as Chibs came out of the garage.

“Sorry, we’re closing up, miss-“ he was saying, but faltered when he saw Faith.

“Hey, Chibs,” she said, smiling and he grinned.

“Your daddy’s over at the clubhouse. He’s gonna be glad to see you, girl,” Chibs told her, walking quickly over and pulling her into a quick hug. Faith returned it, unable to help the silly smile that seemed plastered to her face. She always felt this way when she came home to Charming and saw her family, unable to stop smiling, laughing easily and immediately relaxing into their world.

Chibs glanced at the car and his eyebrows shot up at the sight of Dawn in the passenger seat.

“You brought Dawn home,” he said, quietly. “Your brother’s been going crazy since she left. Is she okay?”

“She’s okay, Chibs. She just needed some time,” Faith told him. He nodded.

“Good. Things haven’t been right without her around here. I’m gonna lock up the garage and then we’ll head over and see Clay,” Chibs said, turning and jogging back to the garage. He went inside through the office door and she heard the locks sliding into place, one at a time, on each of the big roll up doors. While he locked the garage, Faith walked around to Dawn’s side of the car and opened her door. Dawn jerked awake and sat up, sharply.

“Good morning, sunshine,” Faith said with a smile and Dawn dragged a hand over her face, roughly, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

“Oh, jeez, are we already here? Why didn’t you wake me up to drive?”

“Don’t stress, Dawnie. You needed the sleep and we got here in one piece,” Faith told her and Dawn got out of the car, stretching before she shut the door. Chibs came out the office door then and, seeing Dawn awake, he grinned at her and reached out. She stepped into his hug with a smile. When she pulled away, her eyes looked brighter, happier, more like the old Dawn. Faith couldn’t help but think that coming home was the best medicine for both of them.

~*~

Faith heard the motorcycles pull in around midnight and she slipped out of bed, leaving Dawn sleeping under the covers alone. She left the room silently and crept down the hall, to her own room, kept for her whenever she came home. It was more hers than the room at Slayer Central had ever been and she’d even gone so far as to leave a few personal things behind, clothes in the drawers, a few pictures in frames on the shelf. It was a first for her, to have a place that she knew she’d come back to, to not carry everything she owned in her duffel at all times.

Her father had been happy to see them, drawing both Faith and Dawn into a tight hug and giving Dawn a long look from head to toe, as if making sure she was all in one piece.

“We have rules against disappearing and scaring the hell out of all of us, you know,” he’d told her, sternly and Dawn had smiled.

“Yes, sir,” she’d said, quietly.

Satisfied that his girls were all in one piece, Clay told them that Jax was on a run and would be home either late that night or the next morning. They’d eaten a sandwich and played a couple of rounds of pool to relax after Clay went home to Gemma before heading to bed themselves.

They were in the hallway and Dawn had paused at the door to the room she’d shared with Jax.

“Faith?”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t want to sleep alone,” Dawn had said, very quietly.

Without another word, Faith had opened the door and put a hand on Dawn’s back. They’d crawled into the bed together and Faith laid next to Dawn until she fell asleep. It was the sound of the motorcycles that woke her and she’d decided that she wouldn’t wake Dawn. She’d leave that to her brother. 

Faith’s sheets were cool and clean and she slid into her own bed and laid her head on the pillows with a smile. Sleep always came easier when she was home and with any luck, she wouldn’t dream of Dean even once.

~*~

Jax moved quietly through the clubhouse. Opie had gone home to Donna, his wife and Juice was going to have a drink before he went to bed. Opening the door to his room, Jax paused, staring. Someone was in his bed. Silently, he crept forward and pulled back the comforter.

Long dark hair spread across the white pillows and her hand was clenched on the pillowcase, as if holding it in place. She sighed and shifted in her sleep, rolling onto her back and Jax reached out, wondering if he was dreaming. Her skin was soft under his fingertips and when they brushed across her cheek, she opened her eyes, wide and soft and impossibly blue.

“Jax?” she mumbled and he hit his knees beside the bed, pulling her off the mattress and into his arms. She let him, sliding her arms around his neck and curling up on his lap on the floor.

“You’re here,” he said and she stroked her fingers through his hair.

“I’m here. I’m sorry, Jax,” she told him, “Sorry that I left you, that I didn’t call. I just-“

“Later,” he said, putting his finger on her lips. “It doesn’t matter, not now. You’re home.”

~*~

“So what happened? Why’d she run?”

Faith looked up from her breakfast and stared at Clay. He’d showed up at the clubhouse that morning and asked to take her to breakfast at the diner. She should’ve known he was going to grill her.

“I can’t tell you,” she said, after swallowing a mouthful of biscuits and gravy.

“Can’t or won’t?” he asked and she sighed.

“Can’t. It’s a girl thing. Promises are sort of like ironclad contracts,” she said and Clay smirked a little.

“Right. So, how bout we talk about you instead? Where’s Dean and Sam?” he asked, changing the subject and Faith almost groaned out loud.

“That one’s a won’t,” she told him and he raised an eyebrow.

“That bad, huh? Do I need to pay him a visit?” Clay asked and Faith’s eyes widened for a moment. Her father was asking if she wanted him to go after Dean for her? Her chest felt a little tight in a bittersweet way and it took her a moment to answer.

“No, Dad, it’s okay. I’ll be fine.”

~*~

Dawn woke with a sigh, smiling at the feeling of the sun on her face through the window and the warmth of Jax’s body beside her. The flutter of apprehension in her stomach tried to steal her smile, but she carefully pushed it back, determined that it was going to be okay, at least for today.

The minute tightening of Jax’s arm around her waist and the way he pressed his face closer to the back of her neck told her he was awake and fighting it and she turned over to face him.

“Morning,” she said and Jax squinted his eyes open at her.

“Do I hafta?” he mumbled.

“Yeah, you do,” she said, unable to stop the smile that curved her mouth.

“Why?” he groaned and Dawn took a breath.

“Jax, I’m pregnant.”

All the sudden, Jax didn’t look so sleepy anymore. He pushed himself up on his elbow, eyes wide open.

“Are you serious?”

“Um, yeah,” she said, shifting a little under his scrutiny. His wide grin took her a little by surprise, and then she couldn’t help but return it, laughing a little as he leaned forward and kissed her, then kissed her again.

“We’re having a baby?” he said, between kisses and some of the weight lifted from Dawn’s chest.

“Yeah, Jax, we are. We’re having a baby,” she agreed, sliding her arms around his neck as he pulled her close. He rolled to his back, pulling her on top of him and she rested her cheek against his chest. He threaded his fingers through her hair and held her for a moment.

“So, that’s why you ran?” he asked, finally, quietly and Dawn bit her lip before answering.

“Well, mostly, yeah,” she said.

“You were afraid to tell me?” he asked and if she wasn’t mistaken he sounded a little hurt by the idea.

“I just, sort of freaked out,” she finally said, swearing silently to herself that she’d tell him the whole truth eventually, but just not yet. She deserved this one day, just one, where Jax was happy about the baby and she could just enjoy it, before she spilled the rest and destroyed it all.

~*~


	7. Chapter 7

~*~

“When are you going to call her?”

Dean looked over at Sam with a glare that would’ve silenced anyone else. Sam just looked back at him, unimpressed.

“I’m not,” he finally said and Sam sighed and rolled his eyes.

“Yeah you are. You know you are. Jesus, Dean, it’s Faith, the only girl I’ve ever met who can actually still like you after knowing you for longer than one day,” Sam argued and Dean gave him an offended glare.

“Hey, people like me! Women love me!” Dean argued and Sam rolled his eyes.

“Right, sure they do, up until the minute you walk away from them! Please, tell me you really aren’t stupid enough to let go of the one good thing that’s happened in your life since we were kids!” Sam shouted.

Dean’s jaw clenched in that way that meant he was done speaking and Sam sighed and walked out of the motel room, slamming the door behind him. He pulled his phone from his pocket and stared at it for a moment before dialing.

~*~

Dawn was working in the office at the garage, transferring written receipts into the computer’s spreadsheet program and she answered her phone without looking at the caller ID.

“Hello?”

“Dawn?”

“Sam? Is that you?” she asked. She looked around the garage quickly to make sure Faith wasn’t within hearing distance. The Slayer had been damn touchy about the subject of the Winchesters since they’d been back. It’d been two weeks since she’d come home to Charming and in that time, Faith had barely mentioned Dean at all and refused to talk about what had happened.

“Yeah, it’s me. Everything okay with you? When she left, Faith wouldn’t say what was wrong,” Sam said and Dawn sighed, heavily.

“Yeah, well, it was pretty sensitive information at the time I guess. Sam, I’m pregnant,” she told him and there was a shocked silence.

“Wow. Okay, that wasn’t what I expected to hear,” he said, after a moment.

“What do you mean? What were you expecting?” she asked.

“Well, something more… Key like,” Sam suggested and Dawn went still.

“She told you.” It wasn’t a question.

“She did. Dean sort of forced it out of her,” Sam said, quietly.

“And then Dean freaked out. That’s why she won’t talk about him. Dean knows I’m not human and now I’m a threat,” Dawn said, feeling shocked, sick.

“No, we know you’re not a threat, Dawn. You’re still you. Dean just… well it takes him a while to adjust,” Sam tried to explain. “You know how he is.”

“Yeah, I know how he is,” Dawn agreed, still feeling a little lightheaded. “And Faith lying to him about me has to be sending him into a tailspin.”

“Pretty much. How is she?”

“She won’t talk about it. Hasn’t said a word about you or Dean since we got back. I hear Clay wants a piece of him though. He doesn’t know what Dean did, but he knows Faith’s hurting,” Dawn said and Sam groaned.

“As if Faith wasn’t scary enough,” he muttered. “Now she’s got a scary Dad.”

“So why did you call, Sam?” Dawn asked.

“Wanted to make sure you were okay. That Faith was okay,” Sam said.

“We’re fine,” she assured him.

“Can we keep in touch? These two, Dean and Faith, they need us, Dawn. To make sure they don’t screw up their lives beyond the saving point just to get back at each other,” Sam told her and Dawn couldn’t help but agree.

“So we keep them from sleeping with other people, then?” Dawn said and she heard Sam’s long sigh on the other end of the line.

“If at all possible. I mean, it’s Dean and Faith and they’d probably get over it, but it would make things that much harder. They will get back together, Dawn, eventually,” he said.

“Yeah, I know. They’re sort of meant for each other,” Dawn admitted.

“So I’ll be in touch,” Sam said.

“Yeah, you do that. Be careful out there, Sam,” Dawn told him and hung up the phone.

~*~

Sam was uncharacteristically quiet at dinner and Dean eyed him, suspiciously. Finally, his curiosity became too much to bear.

“Okay, spill it, Sammy,” he said, sitting back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest.

“What do you mean?” Sam asked, quickly, guiltily and Dean rolled his eyes.

“Seriously, Sammy, just spit it out. You haven’t said a word in almost an hour. You have something on your mind, so what is it?”

Sam looked down, appeared to think about it for a moment and then sighed.

“You have to promise not to freak out,” he finally said and Dean narrowed his eyes.

“I never freak out,” he said, crossly and Sam groaned inwardly.

“Right. Okay, then, here goes. The reason Faith had to leave and go to Dawn is because she’s pregnant.”

Dean stared at him, his burger halfway to his mouth.

“Dawn’s pregnant?” he finally said and Sam sighed, rolling his eyes.

“Yeah, that’s what she said.”

Dean set the burger down and appeared deep in thought for a moment, his jaw clenched, his eyes glinting unhappily.

“Guess we have to go to Charming, then,” Dean said and Sam’s eyes widened. No way Dean was seriously planning to hunt Dawn, especially now!

“Dean! Wha-“ he started but was interrupted by Dean’s angry growl.

“No way in hell Jax knocks up Dawnie and doesn’t get his ass kicked for it!”

Sam could only smile then and signal for the check.

~*~

“So you spilled about the baby, when do you tell him the rest?” Faith asked. She and Dawn were walking through the grocery store, shopping of all things. In her Slaying, Faith really hadn’t done a lot of the normal things in life, like stocking kitchen cupboards. It was always someone else’s job to make sure there was food in the fridge and the dishes got done. Since they’d been back, Dawn seemed to have fallen into some kind of nesting mode and she was dragging Faith along for the ride, so the Slayer was getting a crash course in home economics.

“I’ll tell him, soon,” Dawn promised, grabbing a few boxes of cereal off the shelf and putting them in the cart.

“You’ll have to,” Faith agreed. “Eventually, you’re going to have to go to the doctor or something and don’t they do blood work and stuff?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Dawn said, sighing. She glanced over at Faith, who was looking around her, as if trying to adjust to the situation she found herself in. Dawn paused when she caught a glimpse of a familiar face at the end of the aisle. Her entire body went still and tense and Faith froze, picking up on Dawn’s body language.

“What is it?” she said, quietly.

“It can’t be,” Dawn whispered.

“Can’t be what, dammit!?” Faith snapped, softly, looking around for a possible source of danger.

“Kevin,” Dawn said and Faith’s eyes widened. She followed Dawn’s gaze and locked on to a dark haired guy.

“ _ The _ Kevin? As in the Kevin that Buffy brought over to keep tabs on you?  _ That _ Kevin?” Faith asked, feeling the anger rising inside her.

“That’d be the one,” Dawn agreed.

“Oh, he so needs his ass kicked,” Faith hissed, starting down the aisle.

“Faith, don’t,” Dawn said, grabbing her arm and Faith paused, looking back at her. Dawn looked pale, scared and the Slayer bit back a curse. She put an arm around Dawn’s shoulders and glanced back down the aisle. Kevin was gone.

“Let’s go,” Faith murmured and Dawn nodded. They headed toward the check stand and Faith stood by while Dawn paid for the groceries with the money Gemma had given them to stock the clubhouse kitchen.

They were walking to the car when he approached and every instinct Faith had was telling her to beat him to a pulp. She restrained herself, only bending the metal grocery cart a little bit by clenching her hand on it.

“Dawnie?” called Kevin, in a lilting Irish accent and the look Dawn gave him should have stopped him in his tracks.

“Don’t. Call. Me. Dawnie,” she ground out.

“Sorry,” he said and Faith clenched her jaw.

“What do you want, Kevin?” Dawn asked, flatly.

“Well, I was worried about you, Dawn,” Kevin said, sounding surprised and Faith snorted, unable to keep quiet any longer.

“I call bullshit,” she spat and he finally looked at her, then back at Dawn.

“Oh, I forgot you two haven’t met,” Dawn said, an unholy glint in her eyes. “Faith, this is the two faced bastard that my sister hired to pretend to like me, to sleep with me and babysit me. Kevin, this is Faith, my Slayer.”

Kevin took a step back, suddenly looking uncomfortable and Faith couldn’t help but give her most wicked smirk, the look on her face very much like the old, try-to-kill-you-with-scary-knives, shoot-your-sister’s-boyfriend-with-poisoned-arrows and help-the-evil-mayor-try-to-become-a-giant-snake-demon Faith.

“Look, Dawn, I just wanted to see you, tell you how sorry I am, about everything,” Kevin said. “It may have started out as Buffy’s plan, but in the end, it was real-“

“Save it, Kevin. Stay the hell away from me,” Dawn snapped, opening the trunk of the car and setting the bags inside. She emptied the cart quickly and slammed the trunk shut, glaring daggers at Kevin the whole time.

“But, Dawn-“ he started and Faith cut him off.

“Dude, take a hint! Get gone already,” the Slayer said, her dark eyes flashing with anger.

“I work for the Council, Slayer and I don’t answer to you,” Kevin said, hotly and Faith barely kept herself from striking out at him.

“Boy, when I get through with you, you’ll be screaming your answers to the rooftops,” Faith hissed. “Get the hell outta Charming, Kevin, today.”

“You may be a Slayer, but you’re not mine and I don’t take your orders. Besides that, you know the penalty for attacking a Council member, you’ve experienced our justice before, firsthand,” Kevin told her and it was Dawn whose fist shot out and caught him across the jaw. The blow knocked him back a few feet and he stared at her, blinking in shock and rubbing his face.

“Oh we should so kick the crap out of you just on principal alone,” Dawn said. “Get this straight, Kevin. I’d so like to watch Faith hurt you, but honestly, that’s wasting the heavy artillery on an annoying little insect. You’re in Charming now and this town belongs to SAMCRO.”

“Who?” Kevin asked, brows knitted in confusion, but Dawn ignored him. She took another step toward him and Kevin stepped back.

“If you aren’t gone by tonight, the Sons of Anarchy are going to find you and then you’re going to wish Faith had killed you.”

Dawn gave him an icy blue glare for another moment and then turned and got into the car. Faith glanced at Kevin and smirked a little.

“Damn. Looks like the boys are gonna get to have all the fun this time,” she said with a shrug, turning away and getting into the passenger seat of the car. Kevin was still standing there, watching them pull out of the parking lot.

“Dawnie, you okay?” Faith asked, quietly, watching the younger woman drive.

“Fine,” Dawn said, sounding a little breathless.

“You sure? Cause you just pulled rank, girlfriend and I didn’t think I’d ever see that one from you,” Faith said.

“What do you mean? I don’t have a rank,” Dawn said, glancing over at her.

“Come on, Dawn, let’s be real here,” Faith told her, quietly. “In Charming it means something to belong with the club. You’re Jax Teller’s old lady. That gives you power, at least here and you just used it.”

“You’re Clay Morrow’s daughter. Jax’s sister. You have power too,” Dawn reasoned.

“I do,” she agreed, “but I didn’t use it. You just threatened someone with SAMCRO, Dawn. You don’t do that unless you know they’ll back your play.”

Dawn was silent for a moment, thinking back to what had happened a few days earlier. She and Gemma had gone to run some errands and had split up to make things go faster. Dawn was waiting in an uncomfortable chair at the bank when the older woman had caught up to her.

_ Gemma looked at Dawn, curiously. _

_ “What’s going on?” _

_ “I’m waiting to talk to someone,” Dawn told her. “I asked to get a detailed copy of my account statements for the last year and so far I’ve been shuffled around to three different people and now I’m waiting for the manager.” _

_ “Oh, Dawn baby, that’s just not acceptable,” Gemma told her and Dawn stared at her, confused. _

_ “Um-“ _

_ Gemma sighed and sat down beside her, speaking in a low voice. _

_ “Look, honey, this is Charming and in this town, it means something to be part of SAMCRO. Being Jax Teller’s old lady, that makes you someone around here. It’s a tool, and if you use it right, it can take you places, or at least make the trip go a little more smoothly. Got me?” _

_ “I think so,” Dawn said, uncertainly and when Gemma stood up and held out a hand, Dawn took it, getting to her feet. She followed Gemma to the counter and watched as she signaled a bank employee. When the woman approached the counter, Gemma smiled. _

_ “We need to speak to your manager, now, please,” she said, politely. _

_ “Oh, I’m sorry, ma’am, but he’s very busy. If you’d like to have a seat-“ _

_ “No, I wouldn’t like to have a seat,” Gemma interrupted. “I want you to go into that office and tell him that Gemma Teller-Morrow wants to see him. Now, do you know that name?” _

_ “Y-yes, ma’am, of course,” the teller stammered. _

_ “Then you also know that I don’t have a lot of patience,” Gemma said and she smiled again. This time the smile was a little scary, stating clearly, without words, that they were being nice for the moment, but that wouldn’t necessarily last. _

_ “I’ll just go and get the manager,” the girl said and rushed off toward the back office. _

_ Gemma looked at Dawn then. _

_ “See what I mean?” _

When Dawn spoke again, it was softly.

“You think they won’t back me?”

Faith snorted.

“You know damn well they will. If Jax knew Kevin was in town he might not let him live long enough to leave at all. My point is, you’re secure enough with them that you’ll trust them to do this for you. Don’t you think you should be secure enough to trust them with your secret? I mean, they’re already pretty damned attached to you, Dawnie. It’d take a helluva lot to make them want to get rid of you,” Faith said and Dawn sighed at the perfectly sound logic.

“I’ll tell Jax, tonight,” she finally said and Faith looked out the window so Dawn wouldn’t see the satisfied smirk on her face.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters, because I have no patience...

~*~

They’d been driving since the night before and Sam stretched his long legs, arching his back and trying to work out the stiffness in his muscles. He glanced over at Dean, whose grip was tight on the wheel as the Impala barreled down the highway. They were less than two hours from Charming and so far, Dean hadn’t said a single word about seeing Faith.

“So, when we get to the clubhouse, Faith will probably be there,” Sam said and Dean didn’t look away from the road, just set his jaw.

“Smooth, Sammy,” he muttered and Sam rolled his eyes.

“Look, Dean, you can’t ignore this forever. You overreacted and you’re sorry. It’s not that hard to say.”

“Don’t tell me how I feel, Sam,” Dean snapped.

“Come on, Dean, this is Faith. She’s like your soulmate or something,” Sam argued.

“Drop it, Sam!” Dean shouted and Sam fell silent.

Dean gripped the wheel even tighter and stared hard at the road in front of him. He refused to think about Faith. She’d lied to him. Sure, it had been to protect Dawn and sure, he’d have done the same if it had been Sammy, but that wasn’t the point. Not really. Right?

The truth was he’d stopped being mad at Faith not long after she left. He’d missed her since the first night, but damned if he’d say it. He refused to apologize for anything, dammit, until she did. The Winchester stubbornness ran in his blood and he’d be damned if he’d break first. Even if he did miss the hell out of her.

~*~

Dawn chewed her lip nervously, shifting against the hard wood of the picnic table. She was sitting on top of the table, at the town park. It was dark and cool, the swing set abandoned, the merry go round empty in the night and she couldn’t help but think the playground looked lonely. She was waiting for Jax to say something, do something, anything other than this horrible silence. She’s finally told him her secret, told him about being the Key, about being created out of that mystical energy. She’d given him the highlights of the battle with Glory and how her blood could be used for all kinds of powerful magic. She even mentioned that there were certain people who would possibly want to hurt her for that fact alone. Now she was silent, scared as hell that he was going to turn his back on her.

Jax was watching her shift, squirm, her teeth biting into her lip. So, Dawn hadn’t always been human. He figured that was a secret she didn’t tell many people about. It was probably the real reason she had run away. He gathered from some of what she said that the magic in her might make this pregnancy a little different that the usual.

Sure, it had shaken him at first, that she’d started out as a ball of energy, but honestly, did it change anything? She was still Dawn. It had taken him a moment to digest what she’d told him, but as he thought about it, he realized that where she’d come from really didn’t matter. She was here, now, with him and he didn’t want her to be anywhere else.

He stepped forward and caught one of her tightly clenched hands in his. She looked up, startled, then let him pull her toward him, putting her arms around his neck, hesitantly as he pulled her to the edge of the table. He drew her closer, until he was standing between her knees, holding her body against his own, sliding his fingers into her hair and tilting her face up toward him. She met his gaze and he stared down at those wide blue eyes and couldn’t help but smile.

“Is that it? Your big secret? That you didn’t start out human?” he asked and she blinked.

“Well… yeah, that’s pretty much it,” she said and looked confused when he kept smiling at her. “Jax, quit looking at me like that, it’s unnerving.”

“Were you waiting for me to yell and scream and stomp away?”

“Well, sorta,” she admitted and he shook his head, pulling her close and leaning down to kiss her, lightly.

“Sorry to disappoint. Not going anywhere,” he mumbled against her mouth and felt her lips curve into a smile before she kissed him back. She pulled back a little and looked up at him.

“So, we’re okay then? I mean, you’re not mad?” she asked.

He smoothed the hair back off her face with both hands.

“Not mad. You were scared. I get that. You didn’t hurt anything by keeping your secret, Dawn. I’m glad you told me, but it doesn’t change anything,” he told her and he could see the relief flow through her, the tension leaving her muscles as she relaxed against him. He just held her for a while, standing there in the silent darkness.

The vibration and ringing of Dawn’s cell phone made her jump and she laughed a little as she pulled it out of her pocket.

“Hello?”

Jax stepped back when his own phone rang as well and he pulled it from his pocket with a sigh. The caller ID on the front said “Clubhouse” and he answered quickly.

“This is Jax.”

Their two respective phone conversations were short and both of them looked a little concerned when they hung up. Jax caught the look on Dawn’s face.

“What’s wrong?”

“That was Sam. He and Dean will be here in about a half hour,” she said, worriedly.

“Oh, that’s just great,” he muttered, rubbing a hand over his face. “That was Piney on the phone. Remember I told you it’s Chibs’ birthday? Well, the party’s in full swing and Faith’s going shot for shot with the boys. It’s getting rowdy.”

“Oh, crap,” Dawn said, hopping off the table. “We gotta get back to the clubhouse.”

~*~

Faith slammed the shot glass down on the bar and joined in the round of cheering from the men beside her. The music was loud, the clubhouse packed with the club and visiting brothers from other chapters. Even a couple of Nomads had shown up and joined in the party. Faith hadn’t had this kind of fun in a long, long time and she was starting to remember why she used to do this on a regular basis.

The music, the booze, the people around her, they all blocked out the unhappiness, the misery that had been gnawing at her gut since she walked out of that hotel room and left Dean in her rearview. One of the Nomads had caught her attention and the alcohol was doing an excellent job of drowning out the memory of the door slamming on Dean. It wasn’t long before she was dancing, not with him, but for him, her body moving fluidly with the music, her hair tossing around her face. Her leather pants hugged her body like a second skin, dipping low around her hips and her top was barely more than a black triangle of cloth, tied together by a couple of strings across her back. She felt large, callused hands touch her waist, slide over her ass and she moved into them, letting her eyes close and refusing to admit that they were the wrong hands and he was the wrong man.

~*~

Clay was purposely not looking at his daughter, disturbed by this wilder side of her. He knew she had a darkness in her, had suspicions that she’d been a party girl for a good chunk of her life, but he hadn’t been prepared to see it in the flesh. She was dancing for Happy, a Nomad who spent some time with them in Charming now and again. She moved like a stripper, liquid sex, but there was a desperation in her body language, a reckless glint in her eyes and once again Clay had to wonder what had happened with Dean Winchester.

~*~

Dawn heard a familiar engine rumble into the parking lot as she swung her leg over Jax’s motorcycle. She pulled off the helmet and set it on the seat of the bike before turning around and watching the Impala roll to a stop. The doors opened and Dean and Sam stepped out of the car. Dawn and Jax walked slowly toward them and with every step, the tension in Dawn grew. She looked nervously from one Winchester to the other, waiting for some sign of what they were doing here. Sam hadn’t had time to tell her anything other than that they were coming before Dean had gotten back in the car and he had to hang up.

“Hey, Dawn,” Sam said, smiling a little at her.

“Hey back,” she said, glancing at Dean. He was staring at her and she forced herself not to step back when he started walking toward her. Jax had no idea that Dean might want to hurt her and Dawn didn’t want him to, not unless it actually came down to that. She was more than a little startled when she was pulled into a rough hug. Shocked, she gingerly returned the embrace. “Um, hey, Dean.”

“You okay?” he asked, stepping back and looking down at her.

“Sure, I’m fine,” she said, unable to hold back the slight tremor in her voice. She was relieved but confused too and still worried about what might happen. “You guys wanna come in or something?” she finally asked, gesturing behind her to the clubhouse.

“Sam will head in with you, Dawn. Me and Jax need to talk first,” Dean said and Dawn felt a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach at the look in his eyes.

“I don’t think-“ she began but Jax interrupted.

“Sure. Go on inside with Sam, baby. I’ll be right in,” he said, that cocky tone in his voice and Dawn groaned, quietly.

Sam was looking from Jax to his brother, nervously, but he walked over and put a hand on Dawn’s shoulder, pulling her gently away and toward the door. She went, a little reluctant, but resigned, pushing open the door to the clubhouse and stepping inside.

What she found there made her completely forget about Jax and Dean and the pissing contest currently going on outside.

“Oh shit,” Sam muttered, staring at the scene before them.

Faith was straddling the lap of a dark skinned man, her legs twined around his waist, hands cupping his shaved head as she kissed him. He was squeezing her ass with both hands and she was rubbing her hips against him to the beat of the music. Faith’s halter-top was untied, the strings hanging down her back, uselessly and the material was shifting when she moved, flashing most of her breasts at anyone who cared to look.

“Can you do something?” Dawn heard and blinked, looking up at Clay, who’d approached while she was staring.

“Huh?”

“I said can you do something?” he repeated. “Will she listen to you?”

“Maybe,” Dawn said, uncertainly. “Has anyone tried to talk to her?”

“If you haven’t noticed, this crew doesn’t have a problem with public sex,” Clay reminded her, gesturing to the room around him and Dawn sighed. At least three other couples were in various stages of undress and no one seemed to notice. A lot of guys were noticing Faith, though, most of them from visiting chapters.

“So no one’s said anything,” Dawn concluded.

“I did,” said Opie, coming up beside Clay. Dawn looked up at him.

“And?” she asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.

“And she asked me to join in,” Opie said and Dawn groaned.

“Don’t they know who she is?” she asked and Clay sighed, rubbing a hand over his face.

“They know she belongs with our chapter. They can see the tattoo. None of the Nomads or the visiting clubs know about her being my daughter, though,” Clay admitted.

“Okay. I’ll see what I can do,” Dawn said, walking away from the group and toward Faith. As she moved away from the three men, she heard Clay speak.

“Winchester. Where’s that brother of yours?”

Deciding she could only handle one crisis at a time, she resolutely ignored the trouble brewing behind her and focused on the problem in front of her. This wasn’t Faith, not really, not anymore. Once upon a time, she’d been pretty free with her body and this would have been a regular night for her, but that had been a long time ago and Dawn knew what would happen if she let this go on. Faith would sleep with this guy, possibly others and in the morning, she’d be beating herself up over it. On top of that, Dean was outside and him walking in on this was not something Dawn wanted to witness.

She approached slowly, ignoring the people watching.

“Faith,” she said, over the music and the Slayer’s eyes slitted open. She smiled at Dawn.

“Hi, Dawnie,” she said. “Glad you’re back.”

“What are you doing, Faith?” Dawn asked and Faith grinned.

“I’m playing. This is Happy,” Faith said, unwinding her legs from around his waist and squirming until she was sliding to her knees between Happy’s legs. Her fingers slid over his bare chest, tracing over the tattoos that decorated his body. She leaned forward, rubbing her cheek over his skin. “He has a happy face for every person he’s killed and I promised to lick every one of them,” she said, her tongue darting out of her mouth to trace over one of the tattooed smiley faces.

Dawn rolled her eyes and shot a glare at Happy. He just raised an eyebrow, looking back at her.

“You know she’s really drunk, right? She wouldn’t be doing this if she wasn’t,” Dawn told him, knowing it would be useless.

“No one’s forcing her to do anything she doesn’t want to,” he said, his voice low and gravelly.

“She’s Clay’s daughter,” Dawn tried, but Happy sort of smirked at her, like she’d said something ridiculous.

“Clay don’t have a daughter,” he told her and Dawn bit back a curse.

“Faith, get up! Stop licking him,” Dawn ordered and Faith shook her head.

“Mmm, no, I don’t think so,” the Slayer said, angling her head and biting down on Happy’s nipple. He closed his eyes and buried his hands in her hair.

“Come on, Faith, please?” Dawn asked, switching tactics. Faith paused, squinting suspiciously at her.

“Why?”

“Because I asked you to?” Dawn tried and Faith cocked her head to one side, thoughtfully.

“But why? I’m finally having a little fun,” Faith said.

“Cause I want you to dance with me,” Dawn told her, reaching out for her hands. Faith grinned and took Dawn’s hands, getting quickly to her feet. Happy looked a little disappointed, but he didn’t say anything to try and stop her and Dawn was grateful he wasn’t a sore loser. Faith was grinning now and Dawn smiled at her, a real smile this time because she actually loved dancing and so did Faith.

The Slayer pulled her out into a clearer spot on the floor and Dawn let herself relax a little, throwing herself into the music, keeping pace with Faith. Her shirt was still untied and her dance was still sensual, but at least she wasn’t gyrating against a strange guy and Dawn decided to call it a victory.

~*~

Dean had to respect a man that could knock him to the ground with one solid punch to the jaw. He used the bumper of the Impala to pull himself to his feet, staring at Clay to see if he was going to try and hit him again. 

The older man had come outside shortly after he’d finished threatening Jax. Dean had told him that if he didn’t step up and do right by Dawn and her baby that psychics would lead dogs to his body. Jax had countered the threat by informing Dean that if he didn’t make things right with Faith there wouldn’t be a body to find. Satisfied with themselves, they’d been getting ready to head inside when Clay had come out of the clubhouse with Opie and Sam.

There hadn’t been a warning at all. Clay had been walking toward him and without pause, had landed a hard right hook to Dean’s jaw. It was going to leave a mark, Dean knew, running his fingers over his face and feeling it begin to swell.

“She’s hurting. Won’t say it, but she is. You fix it and don’t let it happen again,” Clay told him, gruffly and Dean just stared at him for a moment. When he finally answered, it was with a grudging respect.

“Yes, sir.”

Clay had nodded and stepped aside and Dean walked past him and into the clubhouse.

~*~

Faith felt the beat of the music in her veins, felt it setting her free. She knew she was drunk, knew it was dangerous when she was upset. She had a tendency to throw herself head first into bad situations, to fight and fuck and take her rage out on the first person who made themselves handy. She had a feeling she’d been walking a narrow ledge a while ago, getting ready to do something she’d regret, but Dawn had pulled her back. Dawn always pulled her back, kept her safe. She thought Faith was the strong one, but it was a lie. Faith talked a big game, but in the end, Dawn was the one who had the real strength.

Faith’s eyes were closed as she danced, switching her movements fluidly when the song changed, never stopping. She could feel cool air against her skin and knew her shirt was untied, but couldn’t bring herself to care. The body she occasionally brushed against was Dawn and that was okay. She just kept her eyes shut and let herself fall into her own mind. Not surprising that she found him there.

Hands touched her waist, slid around her stomach and she moved into them, wondering a little at the way her mind had conjured the feel of them on her skin. They were familiar, rough and callused and they knew her body, had touched every inch of it. They slid up her stomach, over her ribs to cup her breasts under the loose cloth of her top. Sighing, she arched into the touch, letting them pull her back against a hard chest. She smelled gunpowder and leather and smiled. These were the right hands and this was the right man.

~*~

Dawn watched, relieved, as Dean pulled Faith against him. He’d come up while they were dancing, his eyes glinting dangerously as he watched the men around him watching Faith. Dawn had stepped aside silently when he slid between her and the Slayer, putting his hands on her waist. Faith’s lips had curved into a smile, though she didn’t open her eyes. She’d moved into Dean’s hands and he stared down the onlookers as he ran his hands under her shirt and over her body, the look in his eyes clearly stating “This is mine.” He pulled her back against him and everything about his body language was possessive, protective. Faith never once opened her eyes as he pulled her from the room.

“You think she actually forgave him that easily?” Dawn heard from behind her and turned to see Sam and Jax. Jax was the one who’d spoken and Dawn shook her head, moving to stand close to him. He put an arm around her and drew her against him.

“No way. She’s out of it,” Dawn said.

“She’s so going to kick his ass in the morning,” Sam added.

Dawn leaned against Jax and felt the events of the night catch up to her, seemingly all at once. She wavered on her feet, suddenly exhausted and he kissed her forehead.

“Ready to crash?” he asked and she nodded. She heard him tell Sam to enjoy the party and then they were walking through the bodies and down the hall to their room. They stepped inside and Dawn heard Jax lock the door behind them as she immediately kicked off her shoes and proceeded to undress, leaving her clothes where they fell. She felt Jax’s hands on her back, unhooking her bra and pulling it away and then she was crawling into bed, feeling the smooth, cool sheets against her skin. The sound of Jax undressing faded away and by the time he slid into bed beside her, she was sound asleep.

~*~

Faith woke to warmth and comfort and naked skin against her own. She was being held against a muscular chest, strong arms wrapped around her, tightly. She went very still, trying to remember the night before. One of the perks of Slayerhood was that hangovers were mild, but that didn’t stop her from losing pieces of her memories when she got good and drunk.

She remembered the shots, drinking with the boys. She remembered the music and- holy hell!- the dancing. She tried to remember the face of the man she’d been climbing all over but all that came to mind was smiley faces for some ridiculous reason. Then she was dancing with Dawn and she closed her eyes and had the most realistic waking dream. She dreamed of Dean, his hands on her skin, his body pressed against hers. In the dream, he’d led her off the dance floor and down the hall, to her room. They’d gone inside and he’d undressed her, pulling her with him onto the bed… and that was it, the rest was a blank.

Slowly, Faith opened her eyes, staring at the bare chest in front of her face. She knew that scar, there, just above the right nipple. It had been made by a piece of rebar when he was thrown through a wall by an angry spirit in Washington. Heart thumping, Faith raised her head, looking up to see him watching her with hooded green eyes.

“Hi,” he said, quietly.

“What the hell?” she said, still a little fuzzy on what was going on. “When did you- wait a minute, did we-“

“No,” he said, quickly. “For once, we didn’t.”

Her brow furrowed.

“Why not?” she snapped, then realized that probably wasn’t the right question to be asking at the moment. Still, it stung that he might not have wanted to be with her.

“Because you were trashed. Woulda been wrong or something,” he said, shrugging. She’d scooted back a little, put a few inches between them.

“Why? We’ve had sex plenty of times when one of us was drunk,” Faith said, but Dean shook his head.

“Yeah, when we were together. With the way we left things, I wasn’t sure if you…” he trailed off, unsure exactly how to ask her if she still wanted to be with him.

Faith sighed, closing her eyes because meeting his gaze was making her stomach flutter.

“Why are you here, Dean?”

“Dawn,” he said and her eyes snapped open.

“No one touches Dawn, not even you, Dean. Please, don’t make me kill you,” she said, sharply and Dean was shaking his head.

“No, it’s not like that,” he said and she narrowed her eyes, suspiciously at him.

“Really? Then what’s it like?”

“Look, when Sammy told me Dawn was pregnant, I couldn’t just ignore it,” he said.

“Sam told you about the baby,” Faith said, feeling her stomach tighten. A horrible ache in her chest that might have been fear made it hard for her to speak. “You came here to stop her from having the baby. Why? Because it might be special? Not quite human?”

Dean glared at her.

“Jesus, Faith! What the hell do you think I am?” he asked, angrily.

“A hunter,” she told him, bluntly.

“I only hunt monsters, Faith, not babies or pregnant girls and sure as hell not Dawn,” Dean snapped.

Faith stared at him, wanting desperately to believe him.

“So you don’t want to hurt Dawn now?”

“I never did, dammit! I just-“ he sighed, running his hand through his hair roughly in aggravation. “You lied to me, Faith. It… took me by surprise. I didn’t like it. I might’ve taken things a little too far with some of the stuff I said.”

Faith blinked. If she wasn’t mistaken, that was about as close to an apology that anyone could expect from Dean Winchester. She took a deep breath to steady herself.

“I wanted to protect her. It wasn’t about me or you, just Dawn,” she said, quietly.

“I know. Woulda done the same thing if it was Sammy,” he admitted.

“So when you said you came for Dawn…” Faith said, trailing off so he could fill in the blank.

“I came to kick your brother’s ass for knocking her up,” Dean told her and Faith smiled, reaching out to brush her fingers over the bruise on his jaw.

“Jax did this?” she asked and Dean snorted.

“Hell no. Me and Jax had words, but that was it. Your dad’s the one that got a hit in.”

Faith’s eyes flew wide.

“What? Why? What’d you do?” she wondered, shocked.

Dean cocked his head to one side and stared at her.

“Because I hurt his daughter. Why else?”

Faith narrowed her eyes for a moment, then realized he wasn’t teasing her at all. The glare faded and then she was just looking at him, the way his eyes glinted green, the way his hair stuck up in little spikes from how he’d slept. There was a shadow of a beard on his jaw and she couldn’t stop the vivid memories that sprang up of how those whiskers felt against her skin on many lazy mornings in the past. Faith was suddenly very aware that she was wearing nothing but a pair of thong panties and she doubted he was wearing anything more than his boxer briefs. Dean didn’t like wearing clothes to bed.

“So, last night, the reason we didn’t… that was just because you thought I might be too drunk to know what I wanted?” Faith asked, a little hesitant. “No other reason?”

“What other reason would I have? When have I ever turned you down?” he asked, curious as to where she was going with this.

“And if I’d been sober and said I wanted you?”

“Then I would’ve had you out of those panties in a heartbeat,” he told her, smirking and lifting the covers to look at her barely there undies.

“Dean?”

“Hmm?”

“I’m sober.”

He blinked, staring at her.

“Uh huh,” he said, slowly, almost not daring to hope she meant what it sounded like she meant.

Faith’s patience ran out right about then and she reached out, caught him by the back of the neck and yanked him toward her, claiming his mouth in a harsh kiss. He returned it, his arm slipping around her waist and pulling her body flush against his own. His fingers slipped under the elastic of her panties and he tugged. She groaned when the fabric bit into her flesh.

“You gonna hit me if I tear these off?” he asked and she bit his bottom lip before answering.

“I might hit you if you don’t.”


	9. Chapter 9

~*~

“So I see you and Dean made up,” Dawn said, smiling down at Faith. The Slayer was lying on her rumpled bed, tangled in the sheets, and she blinked up at Dawn and gave a lazy grin.

“That’s one way to put it,” Faith drawled.

“I figured you’d be in here alone when I saw Dean heading for the coffee pot. Thought I’d come in and let you know we have to go pick up some stuff at Wal-Mart today, so you might wanna get dressed.”

Faith groaned.

“Wal-Mart? Seriously? You don’t have an army of the undead for me to kill instead?” Faith asked, hopefully. Dawn gave her a grin.

“Nope, get your lazy butt outta bed and get some clothes on, Slayer, by order of your Watcher!”

“Oh, you so suck,” Faith muttered, good-naturedly before rolling out of bed and rummaging for clean clothes.

~*~

It figured that morning sickness would kick in as soon as she was in a public place. Dawn was gripping the handle of the cart with sweaty hands as she fought to breathe slow and deep. She’d eaten a bagel for breakfast and she was struggling to keep it down, her face damp and pale, her stomach cramping. Faith was looking a little worried, her hand on the small of Dawn’s back as they made their way through the crowded store toward the restrooms. They’d left Dean in Sporting Goods, looking at guns and Sam had wandered off toward Electronics.

“Dawn, you sure this is normal?” Faith asked again and Dawn nodded.

“Yeah, it’s okay. It’ll pass, eventually,” Dawn assured her. “Gemma says it’ll get easier after a while.”

They reached the restrooms and Faith looked at the line of women in dismay.

“Sonofa-“ she started but Dawn shook her head.

“It’s fine. I just need the sink and some paper towels. I’ll be right out,” she assured her.

“All right, well, I guess I’ll, uh, try to get some of the stuff on your list?” Faith said, unsure. Dawn gave her a weak smile.

“That’d be great, Faith. I’ll find you as soon as I’m done.”

Faith watched Dawn slip past the other women and then looked down at the list in her hands before slowly pushing the cart toward the back corner of the store, where she could see paper towels and toilet paper. She figured the laundry and dish soap would be somewhere in that vicinity as well. Mumbling under her breath that shopping wasn’t in the Slayer job description, Faith steeled herself and went for it.

~*~

When Dawn emerged from the restroom fifteen minutes later, her stomach still wasn’t steady, but it was way better than it had been before. She’d washed her face and pulled her hair back and now she just needed to find Faith. Hoping her Slayer hadn’t gotten lost in Wal-Mart, Dawn started toward the housewares department.

She supposed she should have heard someone following her, but in retrospect, there were tons of people in the store so she really couldn’t beat herself up over it too much. She was too startled to do much more than yelp in surprise when a hand clamped down on her arm and she was yanked into an aisle. Spinning to face her attacker, Dawn pulled her arm free and stared at Kevin in shock.

“Kevin? What the hell are you doing here?” she demanded.

“I needed to see you, without that bitch Slayer around to interrupt,” he said.

“Jesus, Kevin, did you follow me here? What’s wrong with you? I already told you we have nothing to talk about!”

“Yes we do, dammit! We had something special, Dawn, no matter how it started out! You owe me the chance to prove that, to explain,” he told her and Dawn narrowed her eyes.

“I don’t owe you a damn thing!” she spat. She turned to walk away but Kevin grabbed her again, this time her shoulder and Dawn spun around swinging. He was ready for her and caught her wrist, twisting it around behind her back at a painful angle so she was forced to stand still.

“Now, listen to me!” he hissed in her ear and tears of frustration and pain stung Dawn’s eyes.

“No! Let me go! There’s nothing to say!”

“The hell there isn’t! Just come with me and we can sit down and talk somewhere quiet. I asked around about that biker gang, Dawn and the deputy Sheriff says they’re bad news. You’ve got no business with men like that, you’re going to get hurt,” he said.

Dawn spoke through clenched teeth, refusing to cry out even though her shoulder was screaming with pain.

“The only one hurting me is you, Kevin. Now let me go before I scream,” she hissed.

“Promise to leave with me, just walk out the front door and get into my car and I’ll let go,” he said, his mouth close to her ear.

“Oh, that’s so not gonna happen,” came a new voice.

~*~

Dean had been looking for Faith, walking down the main aisle and looking down each smaller one, but it was Dawn that he found first. The sight of the man twisting her arm and holding her against him had his fists clenching so hard that his nails were digging into his palms. He heard Dawn tell him to let her go, heard the guy try to get her to leave with him and then he was on them.

“Oh, that’s so not gonna happen,” he said, covering the few yards between them quickly. Dean clenched his fist in the guy’s hair and yanked his head back, his other hand coming up to clamp tight on his throat. He’d have just started swinging, but he was afraid of hitting Dawn by accident. Dawn, her eyes still glittering with tears, her face flushed, jerked out of his grasp and moved quickly behind Dean, rubbing her bruised wrist with her other hand.

“You okay, Dawnie?” Dean asked and she nodded.

“I’ll live,” she said.

“Who the hell is this? You know him?” Dean asked without looking at her. He was staring at the dark haired guy that was struggling to breathe.

“His name’s Kevin and you might want to let go so he can breathe,” Dawn said and Dean raised an eyebrow.

“ _ The _ Kevin?” he asked and Dawn nodded. Dean let out a slow whistle as he released Kevin’s throat. “Damn, boy, you got some balls showing up here.”

“This really isn’t any of your business. It’s between Dawn and I,” Kevin told him, scrambling backward and Dean just smirked, a purely wicked smile that reminded Dawn why he and Faith were so meant for one another. When it came to protecting the people they considered their own, they both had a very dark side to their personalities.

“Do I look like I care?” Dean asked Kevin.

“Hey, Dean, what’s going on?” came Sam’s voice and Dean watched Kevin’s eyes fall on his brother as Sam came up beside him. The Irishman’s face paled a little and he took another step back.

“This is Kevin,” Dean told his brother, calmly, as if introducing an old friend. “He decided he was going to try and force Dawn to leave with him.”

Sam looked at Dawn, concerned and immediately saw where she was holding her wrist. There were already darkening bruises on her pale skin and when Sam looked back at Kevin, his eyes were narrowed and angry.

“What the hell is your problem, buddy?” Sam asked. “Haven’t you already done enough? Just leave her alone already!”

“Like I said before, this isn’t anyone’s business but mine and Dawn’s,” Kevin repeated, but his voice was far less firm than it had been a few minutes ago. He nearly jumped out of his skin when Faith’s voice sounded from just behind him.

“Thought I told you to get the hell out of Charming,” the Slayer said, her tone casual, but with an underlying thread of anger.

“As I said before, I don’t take orders from you, Slayer,” Kevin said, but this time his bravado was horribly forced, his voice wavering a little as he spoke.

“Aw, what’s the matter, Kevin? You got no problem hurting a woman on her own, but when her friends show up, you’re scared shitless,” Dean said.

“Your call, Dawnie,” Faith said, her dark eyes snapping with rage. “What do we do with him?”

“Get him out of here. Make sure he leaves town this time,” Dawn said, her voice a little unsteady.

“You sure?” Faith asked. “You don’t want me to hurt him, make him pay for that wrist?”

“No, I just want to go home,” Dawn said and Faith felt a whole new wash of hatred for Kevin as she saw just how shaken Dawn really was.

“Besides, Jax is gonna want to be the one to do the honors,” Dean said, knowingly and Faith looked at him, the way his green eyes gleamed and his fists kept clenching and unclenching at his sides. She’d rarely seen Dean this angry and it was always because someone had hurt the people he considered family, Bobby, Sam or Faith. To see him react this way for Dawn erased any lingering doubts she may have had about why he’d come back to Charming.

Sam was the one who escorted Kevin from the store and Dean offered to pay for the items in the cart while Faith took Dawn out to her car and called Jax and Clay.

Faith called her father first and gave him the bare bones of the situation. She told him who Kevin was, what he’d done, that he’d already been warned and Clay promised the Sons would meet them at Kevin’s motel room in twenty minutes. Then Faith called Jax because he needed to hear things first hand or he’d be even more pissed.

“Is she okay? Is she hurt?” Jax demanded, as soon as Faith told him what had happened.

“Her wrist is bruised and I’m thinking her shoulder might be wrenched, but she’ll be okay,” Faith promised him.

“Keep her safe, Faith. I’ll be there in ten minutes,” Jax said and Faith nodded, even though he couldn’t see her.

“I got her, Jax. Just come help take out the trash.”

~*~

“Why didn’t you tell Jax about Kevin last time?” Faith asked, quietly. They were sitting in the Impala, outside Kevin’s motel room. They could see Dean and Sam through the open doorway of the room, supervising while Kevin packed his bags.

“Honestly, I just forgot. I was so stressed about telling him about the Key that Kevin just slipped my mind… and then there was that thing with you not doing Happy in the middle of the clubhouse,” Dawn said with the ghost of a smile.

Faith raised an eyebrow.

“Happy? The Nomad?”

“Mmm hmm,” Dawn said with a smirk. “He has a smiley face tattooed on his body for every person he’s killed and apparently, you promised to lick every one of them.”

“Crap,” Faith muttered. At least that explained why all she could come up with when she tried to picture him was smiley faces. Still, she’d seen Happy a time or two and while he was good looking and definitely a bad boy, which was sort of her type, she was very glad that Dawn had stopped her from following through with her licking plan.

The rumble of motorcycles halted the conversation as the Sons of Anarchy rode into the parking lot. They lined up their bikes in what always seemed to Dawn to be sort of a synchronized ritual. Their timing was almost perfect, the bikes rolling into place in a smooth procession, one after the other, though the one time Clay had heard her compare it to a dance, he’d looked so disturbed that she never mentioned it again. Faith, though, had grinned and winked at her. She was well acquainted with the way Dawn’s thought patterns worked.

Dawn and Faith got out of the Impala as the boys dismounted and Dawn moved into Jax immediately when he reached for her. He hugged her tight to his chest for a moment with one arm and then drew back, looking down at her.

“Let me see it,” he said and Dawn held out her arm, wincing a little when she moved her shoulder. The bruises were dark and ugly and the perfect shape of a man’s hand and Faith could almost see the rage rising into her brother’s eyes.

“Stay here with Faith,” Jax said, stepping away from Dawn and heading toward the motel room. Clay, already there, moved silently out of his way and the others stood back as well.

“Jax,” Dawn said, following him. He ignored her and Faith cursed softly under her breath, following Dawn.

Jax never stopped, never slowed down, just walked into the room, grabbed Kevin by the front of his shirt and slammed him against the wall. His head bounced, denting the plaster, then bounced again when Jax pulled back his fist and hit him, then hit him again. Blood sprayed from Kevin’s nose and mouth and Jax hit him again.

“Jax!” Dawn shouted, reaching out, but Clay grabbed her, pulling her back with his hands on her waist. She struggled against his hold. “Jax, don’t! Don’t kill him!”

“He’s not gonna kill him, Dawn, just make him pay,” Clay told her and Dawn bit her lip, hard enough to draw blood. Clay looked at Faith and the Slayer stepped up, taking Dawn from him with firm hands on her upper arms, drawing her back, out of the room. Chibs, Juice, Tig and Opie were lined up at the door, watching Jax beat Kevin bloody. They didn’t say a word, but Faith noticed they were clenching and unclenching their fists repeatedly, as if fighting to keep themselves from joining in the beating. They didn’t try, though. They understood that this was Jax’s problem to deal with, the same way Faith, Dean and Sam understood it and didn’t try to get in the way.

When Kevin was lying on the ground, his face black and blue, blood pouring from his mouth, his nose and the cut on his cheek, Jax pulled back his fist to swing again and finally, Clay grabbed his arm.

“Jax,” he said, but was ignored. Jax yanked at his grasp and Clay raised his voice. “Jackson! Stop!”

Jax blinked, breathing hard and then looked at Clay, actually seeing him this time.

“That’s plenty. Think he got the idea, son,” Clay told him and Jax looked down at Kevin, who was trying to crawl away.

“Get out of Charming,” he said, harshly. “And if you ever come near Dawn again, I will end you.”

Dawn was waiting outside the room when Jax emerged, wiping the blood from his knuckles with a bandana he’d pulled from his pocket. Faith, who’d been holding onto her during the beating, finally released her and Dawn rushed forward. Jax cupped her face in his hands, still stained red with Kevin’s blood and kissed her, hard. Dawn fisted her hands in his jacket and returned the harsh kiss, resting her forehead against his chest when he pulled back. His hands slid from her face, over her shoulders and his arms surrounded her.

Jax looked over Dawn’s head at Faith.

“I’m taking Dawn home.”

Faith could only nod.

~*~

Faith, Dean and Sam followed the procession of motorcycles, which followed the rental sedan as it left Charming city limits. It had taken Kevin an hour to pull himself together enough to drive and as soon as he was able, he’d been escorted out of town with a warning that if he ever came back to Charming, he wouldn’t leave again.

“You think he’ll be back?” Sam wondered aloud.

“Dunno. He doesn’t strike me as the brightest crayon in the box,” Dean said. 

Faith just watched the sunlight glint of Kevin’s retreating bumper. There was a part of her that wished he would come back, just so she could inflict her own round of blood and pain. She didn’t even realize she’d spoken out loud until she looked over to see Dean and Sam staring at her.


	10. Chapter 10

~*~

Several weeks after the “Kevin incident”, as Dawn had taken to calling it, Gemma walked into the office to find Dawn bent over the desk, a pained expression on her face as she studied the handwritten receipts in front of her.

“You hurtin’, sweetie, or is it just a pain in the ass trying to read Clay’s handwriting on those?” Gemma asked and Dawn looked up, eyes wide.

“Huh?”

“You look like something hurts,” Gemma clarified, studying her, carefully. She was moving stiffly, gingerly.

“Um,” Dawn said and Gemma narrowed her eyes. She stepped to the door and hollered for Faith, then crossed her arms and waited until the Slayer came into the office, wiping her hands on a rag.

“What’s up? Everything okay?” Faith asked, looking from Gemma to Dawn and back again. Gemma shut the door behind her and gestured to the chair beside the desk. Faith looked at her strangely, but sat down. “Am I in trouble or something? Cause whatever it was, I didn’t do it.”

“Oh, I’m sure you did do it, but right now we’re here about Dawn,” Gemma said. “I wanted you in here for back up.”

“Oh, well okay then, if it’s about Dawn instead of me,” Faith said, shrugging and looking at Dawn. “What’d you do?”

“I didn’t do anything!” Dawn said.

“And that’s the problem,” Gemma said and both Dawn and Faith looked confused at that. Gemma sighed. “You’re hurting, I can see it in your face. Why haven’t you said anything?”

Faith’s brow furrowed and she stared at Dawn.

“What’s wrong?” she demanded.

“Nothing, I swear! Just a little bit of… pelvic pain, nothing serious,” Dawn told them, squirming in her seat.

“What kind of pelvic pain? Tell us, Dawn!” Faith ordered.

“Like I said, nothing serious, I swear! I’ve been reading books about pregnancy and I think it’s just my hips starting to, you know, spread,” she told them, uncomfortably.

“You think?” Faith asked, looking at Gemma. She was completely out of her element in this conversation and she was relying on Gemma to know what Dawn was talking about.

“It’s possible, sure, but honey, you haven’t even seen a doctor yet. You’re, what, almost three months along now? Have you even made an appointment?” Gemma asked and Dawn’s face flushed when she shook her head.

“Well, why the hell not?” Gemma demanded and Dawn sighed.

“Its… complicated,” she hedged and Gemma rolled her eyes.

“Is this about that Key thing?” she asked and Dawn’s eyes went wide. She looked at Faith, who could only shrug.

“Don’t look at me, it was probably Dad,” the Slayer said. “You knew Jax was gonna tell him, he had to, you know, in case anything came up that affected the club.”

“Yeah, Clay told me about your secret and lemme tell you, babe, it would take a hell of a lot more than that to make us not want you around anymore,” Gemma said. “In any case, you can’t let it stop you from seeing a doctor.”

“But what if something shows up?” Dawn asked, quietly. “In my blood work, I mean? I’ve never had blood taken before, I don’t know if my labs will come back normal.”

“Baby, this is Charming. Remember who you are in this town,” Gemma reminded her. “If something comes up abnormal, we’ll just have to remind your doctor who your baby’s family is. No one will say anything.”

Dawn finally smiled a little and Faith looked from her to Gemma again.

“So… Dawn’s gonna call a doctor now, right? I’m done being backup?”

“For now,” Gemma told her and Faith made a beeline for the office door.

~*~

The following day Dawn found herself at the hospital, which also housed the doctors’ offices in Charming. The OB/GYN she’d found was Dr. Tara Knowles and while she was nervous about the entire idea of doctors, she was glad at least that she’d been able to find a woman. The receptionist who’d made the appointment for her had mentioned that the doctor had only recently moved to Charming. 

She waited in the slightly uncomfortable chair, glancing around at the mostly empty waiting room as she waited for her name to be called. She’d already filled out her paperwork, turned in the health insurance information that Gemma had sent with her. She was on the books as an employee at Teller-Morrow, which meant she could be covered by their health plan. She never mentioned to Gemma that she already had health insurance, through the Council, and she didn’t plan to. If she started claiming these visits on her own insurance, it would send up a red flag and someone would notify Buffy. That was the last thing she needed at this point, her sister showing up and causing trouble in Charming.

She’d left the garage alone, with Jax and Faith both promising to be right behind her. They had a few minutes of work left and then both of them wanted to shower and change before meeting her at the hospital. They were all a little nervous and a little excited, since she’d been told by the nurse on the phone that she’d be having an ultrasound during her visit. The nurse had been a little surprised that Dawn was this far along without having seen a doctor. Dawn had hedged around the subject, simply saying she’d been doing some traveling.

“Dawn Summers,” she heard and Dawn got to her feet, smiling at the blond nurse as she held open the door. She followed the older woman down a short hall and into an exam room.

“Go ahead and get undressed, put on the gown and Dr. Knowles will be in shortly,” the nurse said and Dawn nodded.

“Okay. Um, my boyfriend and his sister will be coming in, so could you bring them back, after this part, I mean? They want to be here for the ultrasound,” Dawn told her and the nurse gave her a warm smile.

“Of course, honey.”

~*~

“Hurry up, Jax!” Faith whispered, loudly.

“It’s a hospital, not a library,” Jax said and Faith rolled her eyes, grabbing his sleeve and dragging him down the hall at a faster pace. She wasn’t sure why hospitals made her feel the need to whisper, but it’d always been that way. She found the Obstetrics office and pulled Jax inside and up to the front counter.

“Hi, can I help you?” asked the young woman behind the counter.

“Yeah, we’re here with Dawn Summers, she had an appointment,” Faith said and the woman smiled.

“Oh, sure, she asked the nurse to be on the lookout for you! I’ll just let them know you’re here!”

The woman disappeared through a door and a moment later, the door in the waiting room opened and a blond nurse poked her head out.

“Dawn Summers’ family? You’re just in time for the ultrasound,” she said and Jax and Faith filed past her into the hall.

At the door to the exam room, the nurse knocked softly and they could hear a woman’s voice inside say, “Sounds like Daddy made it in time.”

The nurse pushed the door open and Faith followed Jax inside, running into him from behind when he stopped short. Annoyed, Faith stepped around him and saw Dawn sitting on the exam table. She was wearing her own clothes, a rumpled gown tossed over the back of the chair in the corner and her shirt was unbuttoned from the bottom to about her ribs. There was a big machine next to the table, which she assumed was the ultrasound machine and a dark haired woman, only a year or two older than Dawn’s 24 years, wearing a white lab coat. The doctor was staring at Jax as if she’d seen a ghost and he looked fairly shocked himself.

“Jax?” the doctor said. “What are you doing here?”

“Tara? When did you come back to town?” Jax asked, at the same time.

“What’s up? You two know each other?” Faith asked, looking from the doctor to her brother and then at Dawn. Dawn looked confused and a little bit wary.

“Tara and I were… friends. A long time ago, when we were kids,” Jax said, finally blinking and looking at Dawn. It was more than a little obvious that they’d been a bit more than “friends” and Dawn’s eyes were uncertain. Jax walked across the room to stand beside the table and took Dawn’s hand in his before he looked at the doctor again. “I’m here to see the baby.”

“So you’re the father then?” Dr. Knowles asked and Faith felt herself starting to get agitated. She opened her mouth to say something but Jax beat her to it.

“Yeah, I am,” he said, proudly and Dawn looked up at him, finally smiling. Faith moved around the table to stand beside them as the doctor seemed to shake herself out of her surprise.

“That’s great, Jax, I’m happy for you,” she said, picking up the wand that was attached to the ultrasound machine. “Why don’t we see what Baby is up to in there?”

~*~

The image on the screen was black and white and fuzzy and it took a while for their eyes to make sense of any of it. With a little direction from the doctor, they were able to make out a foot, a hand and from there, things started to come into focus. The three of them had watched the monitor raptly while Dr. Knowles took her digital measurements and whatnot and at the end, she printed out a strip of black and white pictures on thin paper and handed it to Dawn.

“Here you go, first pictures,” she said, smiling warmly at her and Dawn couldn’t help but smile back.

“Thanks,” she said, admitting to herself that the woman seemed like a good doctor, despite having a past with Jax.

“In a few weeks we’ll do another and by then we’ll be able to tell the sex of the baby. For now, I can tell you that everything looks good and both of you seem healthy,” Dr. Knowles said. Dawn was sitting up, buttoning her shirt and hopping off the table and Jax nodded at the doctor.

“Thanks, Tara,” he said, quietly and she gave a tight smile and nodded back. Faith couldn’t help but think it was disappointment she saw in the woman’s eyes. The kind of disappointment a woman might feel when she runs into an old lover and finds out he’s happy without her in his life. Still, Jax was behaving himself, doing well with the situation and the doctor had managed to focus on Dawn and not Jax, so Faith kept her mouth shut, for the time being.

~*~

Three days passed before the morning that Faith found Dawn standing in her and Jax’s room, staring down at herself and crying. Faith froze in the open doorway, momentarily at a loss for words.

“Dawnie?” she said, quietly and Dawn blinked, wiping her face and looking at Faith, eyes red and swollen from crying.

“Yeah?” she replied, hoarsely.

“What’s wrong? Who’s ass do I need to kick?” Faith asked, stepping into the room. A half-hysterical laugh bubbled up in Dawn’s throat.

“That’d be Jax.”

Faith’s eyes flew wide.

“What? Why? What’d he do?” she demanded and Dawn shook her head.

“He got me pregnant,” Dawn told her, fresh tears slipping down her face. Confused now, Faith stared at her.

“Yeah, babe, we already figured that one out,” Faith said, slowly. “Dawn, tell me why you’re crying.”

“It’s stupid,” Dawn mumbled, sniffling.

“Dawn!” Faith all but shouted.

“I can’t button my jeans.”

Faith blinked again, staring at Dawn, at a total loss for words.

“Told you it was stupid,” Dawn muttered, turning away from her. 

Faith stood still for a moment, then walked calmly to the closet, yanked it open and dug through the clothes until she found a lightweight cotton sundress that Dawn wore often. She pulled it off the hanger and walked over to Dawn. With one hand on her shoulder, she turned the younger woman around and put the dress in her hands.

“Get dressed. We gotta go,” Faith told her, seriously, before walking out of the room. 

Dawn wiped her cheeks with her hands before she pulled her shirt off and tugged the dress down over her head. She shimmied out of the too tight jeans and smoothed the skirt down over her hips. It brushed mid-thigh, only a few inches shorter than usual with the gentle swelling of her belly lifting the hem a bit. Otherwise, it fit perfectly, the floral cotton hugging her curves, the thin straps leaving her shoulders mostly bare. Finally, the slight rounding of her belly felt feminine instead of fat, hugged by the familiar feel of the soft cotton and the slight flare of the dress when she moved made her smile. It was just flirty enough to make her feel a little bit sexy instead of like a swiftly inflating balloon. As soon she slipped on her white sandals, she left the room, walking quickly down the hall to find Faith in the main room of the clubhouse, talking to Dean.

In her daisy duke cutoff jeans and a shirt that had started life as a black and red bandana, Faith was straddling the elder Winchester’s lap as he sat on the barstool. His hands were firmly placed over her back pockets, holding her up and her arms were twined around his neck. As Dawn entered the room, she saw Faith kiss Dean, long and slow and Dean groaned. Faith pulled back slowly and ran her hand down Dean’s chest, her fingers slipping into his jacket pocket and coming back out with his keys.

“You guard her with your life, Slayer,” Dean growled and Faith slid off his lap, slipping her feet back into the leather sandals she’d left on the floor. “And take care of Dawn, too,” he added.

“You bet,” Faith agreed and Dean sighed.

“You know you so owe me for this, right?” he asked and Faith grinned wickedly.

“Looking forward to settling that debt,” she said and Dean was smirking when she turned and walked away. She met Dawn in the middle of the room and smiled at her. “Ready, girlfriend?”

“For what? Where are we going?” Dawn asked as Faith linked their arms and led her from the clubhouse.

“We got the Impala and Gemma gave me Dad’s credit card. We’re going shopping,” Faith told her and Dawn’s eyes widened. Then her lips curled into a smile and she laughed out loud for the first time that morning.

~*~


	11. Chapter 11

~*~

Kevin looked in the rearview mirror of his car, searching his face for any sign of the bruising and swelling that had haunted him for the last few months. The beating he’d taken at the hands of Jax Teller had left him with a broken cheekbone, a cracked jaw and a broken orbital bone around his left eye. He hadn’t been able to speak, eat, drink, sleep or even blink without pain and every moment he suffered, he cursed Jax and Dawn and all the others that had been with them in Charming.

Magic was an amazing thing, really, Kevin mused, noting the perfect symmetry of his face, restored by several very powerful healing spells. It would’ve taken massive plastic surgery to fix the damage without magic and, not for the first time, he found himself grateful for the contacts he’d made while working for the Council. That was where he’d heard of his current employers.

He’d contacted them first, when he learned what they were looking for. If Dawn hadn’t found out what he was really doing, what her sister had done, he might never have made the decision. He’d been content to keep collecting pay from the Council just for dating a beautiful girl and keeping an eye out for her. Then Dawn had gotten nosy and listened in on his private phone conversation and she’d gotten suspicious. Everything had gone to hell then. Dawn disappeared, Buffy told him in no uncertain terms that his job there was over and Kevin found himself in the position of having to actually work for a living again.

He’d been in the library at the New York branch of the Council’s office, cataloguing books for barely more than minimum wage while he continued his training to become a Watcher. Once he graduated to full-fledged Watcher, he’d have to find a Slayer that would agree to work with him before he’d be able to collect pay for the job, but at the time, it was the best prospect he had. Then, one night when he was alone in the library, shelving a stack of old dusty tomes, he dropped a book with a red leather cover and it fell open to an interesting picture of an open portal and a group of demons. Intrigued by the detailed illustration, Kevin had sat down and begun paging through the book, reading passages throughout, learning about the Sathari demons.

When he contacted them, they’d almost killed him, until he told them he could get them the Key, for a price, of course. The demons had agreed, anxious to get their claws on the mystical energy that lived inside Dawn, to use her blood to open the portal that would allow them to return to their home world, a hell dimension several planes from this one. It had taken him a long time to find a way into the Council’s records, to locate Dawn once she left Cleveland and once he’d found her, things hadn’t gone as well as he thought they would.

Kevin’s original plan was to show up in Charming, grovel at Dawn’s feet and tell her how much he really loved her. She’d forgive him and from there it would be easy to drug her and deliver her to the Sathari. He wasn’t counting on her growing a backbone, attaching herself to the only Rogue Slayer still in existence and hooking up with a biker gang.

The Sathari were getting impatient at this point and Kevin was pretty sure he wasn’t going to get any more second chances. He had to get his hands on Dawn, get her away from Charming and hand her over, or he doubted he would be alive much longer himself.

The rumble of an engine caught his attention and Kevin watched as the black Impala rolled out of the garage parking lot. He recognized Faith driving and Dawn in the passenger seat. The two of them appeared to be alone and Kevin put his own car in gear, pulling onto the road behind them, careful to keep a few cars between their two vehicles. He glanced over at the passenger seat, making sure the handle of the gun was visible and easy to get to under the sweater he’d tossed over it. There could be no mistakes this time. He couldn’t fail again.

~*~

Faith was of the firm opinion that if a Slayer had to shop, the only acceptable place was the mall. It had lots of choices for different styles and some malls, like the one she and Dawn were at, in Lodi, even had stores that sold weapons. She was standing in the middle of The Cutting Edge, a small specialty shop they’d stumbled across, and Faith was turning in slow circles and watching the florescent lights gleam off the hundreds of blades that lined the walls. Knives and swords of all shapes and sizes, from tiny little penknives to full sized broadswords. Hunting knives meant for regular use and even fantasy replica blades from movies, books and comic books. This store sold all of them, gleaming and dangerous and each one beautiful to the blade-loving Slayer.

Dawn’s laughter made her turn to find the younger woman standing in the doorway of the shop with a grin on her face.

“You say something?” Faith asked, distantly and Dawn laughed again.

“Yeah, I said it’s starting to get late,” Dawn repeated. “We should start back.”

Faith gave a longing look at the walls of the shop again and Dawn rolled her eyes.

“We can come back, Faith, I promise,” Dawn told her and Faith heaved a sigh, slowly leaving the store. Dawn handed her the small shopping bag that held Faith’s purchases and the two of them started for the doors that would lead them to the parking lot. Dawn herself was carrying two handfuls of bags, mostly maternity clothes, strange looking jeans with cloth waistbands that Faith had stared at, doubtfully. Dawn had just shaken her head and picked out a few pairs. Some would fit her now, some not until she was little bigger. The shirts Faith found easier to help with. Sure, they were a little bigger, more stretchy than normal, but shirts were shirts. Between them, they’d picked out enough clothes to get Dawn through her pregnancy and Dawn had even bought a nursing bra and a few nursing shirts, at which point Faith had to leave the aisle she was on and go stare blankly at a wall of teddy bears. The Mommy and Me store was so not the right place for her.

Dawn had spent her own money on her clothes and so had Faith when they stopped at the small Victoria’s Secret shop. She’d bought a few pairs of panties, telling Dawn it was to replace the ones that Dean kept ripping off her. Rolling her eyes at the over share of information, Dawn had handed her a couple of cute, lacy bras that matched the panties she’d picked out. Grinning, Faith had paid for her purchases and then the two of them had gone to the food court to find something for lunch. After that, they’d spent almost an hour just browsing through the mall before Faith found the knife shop and Dawn had had to tell her it was time to go. 

Outside the air-conditioned building, the day was hot and bright, the California sun reflecting off the blacktop. They’d parked at the edge of the parking lot, in the interest of protecting the Impala from other cars and customers. Dean would freak if someone dinged his precious baby with a car door or a shopping cart. Beautiful as the car was, Faith had to admit that at times like this, she wished it had a few more modern amenities, like air-conditioning for instance. They’d put their bags in the backseat and gotten into the car, both of the cranking their windows all the way down as Faith started the engine and pulled out of the parking lot.

It was a thirty-mile trip back to Charming and Faith hadn’t even made it five miles outside of the Lodi city limits before Dawn’s face drained of color and her hand tightened on the doorframe.

“Faith, I don’t think that Chinese food was a good idea,” she said and Faith gave her wide eyes.

“You gonna be sick?” she asked.

Dawn nodded and Faith groaned, searching the side of the road for a spot wide enough to pull off.

“Hold on, Dawnie, gimme just a sec, okay? Please, please don’t puke in Dean’s car, babe,” Faith told her, finally spotting a slightly wider spot on the shoulder and easing the car off the road. 

Dawn had the door open as soon as the car stopped and she practically fell out into the gravel, onto her knees, heaving. Faith turned off the car and slid across the seat, stepping out the passenger door to kneel beside Dawn, pulling her hair back from her face and holding it behind her head until she was through. Dawn was trembling when she finally stopped being sick, leaning back against the car and Faith got to her feet so she could lift Dawn back into the car.

The sound of the gunshot jerked Faith’s head around but even Slayers aren’t faster than bullets. Dawn’s eyes widened in horror as blood bloomed on Faith’s chest like some kind of horrible flower. Faith’s body jerked, violently, her brown eyes wide and startled and then she was falling and Dawn reached up, trying to catch her. She was able to steady Faith enough that as she fell forward, she landed across the front seat of the Impala and then Dawn rose up, trying to see who had taken the shot without leaving the shelter between the door and the body of the Impala.

She peeked through the open window, searching for the shooter. She didn’t see anyone, or even any other cars and she turned to check on Faith, only to feel a sharp sting in the side of her neck. She raised her hand to the pain, instinctively and fumbling a little, yanked the small dart out of her neck, just before darkness rolled in from the edges of her vision and the world disappeared.

~*~

Kevin was sweating by the time he got Dawn into the backseat of his car, her hands and feet bound with duct tape. It wasn’t that she was heavy, but that he was afraid another car was going to drive by and see him carrying her, or see the Impala on the side of the road, its door open and seemingly empty. All it would take was one nosy civilian to stop and see the Slayer’s body lying in the car and he was screwed.

The decision to kill the Slayer had been easy enough and he’d been following them all day, waiting for a clear shot with no witnesses. When they’d left the mall without giving him that opening, he’d been sure he was going to have to wait for another day, but then the big black car had swerved off the road and Kevin had his chance.

With Dawn secure in the backseat, Kevin got behind the wheel of his rental car and pulled onto the highway, anxious to get his captive to a safe location before anything could go wrong.

~*~

Faith heard the sound of the car pulling away and struggled to move her hand over her head. It seemed like an impossible feat, but she finally made it, running her fingers over the seat until she found the smooth cover of her cell phone. Fumbling, her fingers feeling thick and clumsy, she managed to pick up the phone. Operating by feel, she pressed the two and then Send and struggled to drag the phone to her ear.

~*~


	12. Chapter 12

~*~

Dean was at Clay’s in the backyard with Jax, working on an old car that had become a weekend project for the two of them. It was a 1969 Camero and it was meant to be a birthday present for Faith in a few months. His hands were covered in grease and when his phone rang with Faith’s ringtone from where it sat on the counter, he asked Jax to press the speakerphone button.

“Hey, babe,” he said, his voice loud so it would carry the short distance to the phone. Faith didn’t reply and all the two men could hear was some static and the rough sound of someone breathing. “Faith?” he said, uncertainly.

“Dean,” came the raspy, wet sounding voice and Dean forgot the grease on his hands and snatched his phone up.

“Faith!? What’s wrong? You sound-“

“Shot.” The word came out clipped and harsh and again it was wet sounding, as if there were something thick in her throat and this time Dean was fairly sure it was blood.

“Where are you?” Dean demanded.

“Road… Jax… Dawn…” she rasped and Jax was already headed for the door, Dean on his heels.

“We’re coming Faith, just keep breathing!” Dean told her.

~*~

Sunbathing was a girly habit. It was the only truly girly thing that Faith liked to do. She’d lie on a towel in the grass, or around a pool in her bikini and relax into the bright rays until her skin darkened in a deep, even tan. If she had privacy, she’d skip the bikini and just wear a thong and Dean loved to trace the line where pale skin met tanned flesh when they were in bed.

The stark white of the bandages against that tan seemed wrong, obscene and Dean tore his eyes away from them with difficulty.

The bullet had torn through her chest, just above her heart, nicking a lung and then out the other side of her body.

_ The Impala on the side of the road, passenger door hanging open… _

The doctor, a girl Jax called Tara had said that she was lucky to be alive, but that the wound had partially healed already. Jax had explained the Slayer healing by simply telling her that his sister was special and that was why they’d called Tara to the clubhouse instead of taking Faith to the ER. Tara had fallen silent at that and cleaned Faith’s wounds as quickly and efficiently as possible and it remained unspoken but clear that a gunshot wound would have been reported to the police and attracted all kinds of unwanted attention.

_ Walking around the back of the Impala, gun drawn and ready and seeing Faith’s bare foot hanging out of the car, her shoe lying in the gravel… _

The doctor, who didn’t look old enough to hold the title, prodded into the wound and Faith had hissed, tossing her head but not regaining consciousness. She hadn’t opened her eyes since they’d found her, but Tara said her pulse was growing stronger and that if she kept up this rate of healing and got plenty of rest that she should be fine without going to a hospital.

_ Blood. So much blood, all over the seat, all over her chest, running down her arm and drip, drip, dripping from the ends of her fingers… _

Dean couldn’t remember ever being as terrified as he’d been when they found Faith, lying motionless in the Impala’s front seat. He hadn’t known what to do, had jerked open the driver’s side door and cupped her head in his hands.

_ “Faith! Dammit, wake up!” he shouted and her eyes fluttered open, glazed and unfocused. _

_ “Dawn,” she rasped at him. _

_ “Where is she, Faith?” Jax asked, leaning over Dean and looking down at his sister. _

_ “Kevin,” Faith spat, hoarsely. “Shot her with some kind of dart and took her away.” Faith’s voice was getting softer and she was struggling to breathe as she spoke. _

_ “We’ll find them,” Dean promised her and Faith nodded, slowly before her eyes closed and she went limp in his hands. _

Sam had forced him to let go of her then. Gemma had driven them in her car, the two Winchesters and Jax and they’d called the others on the way. Clay had been in Stockton with Tig, Chibs and Juice on club business and had promised they were on their way back immediately. Piney and Opie were at the clubhouse with Half-Sack and when Gemma called and told them Faith was hurt, they started getting the back room ready for her, laying out sheets on the long sturdy table they’d used a time or two for medical emergencies and gathering what first aid supplies they could.

Jax had called Tara’s office and bullied a receptionist into letting him talk to her personally. He’d asked her to meet him at the clubhouse, told her only that there was someone that needed her help. Dean had gathered Faith against him and sat in the passenger seat, in the blood, holding his hands tight over her wounds as Sam drove the Impala, following Gemma and Jax back to the clubhouse.

Now that Tara had gone, Dean sat in silence with Faith. She was lying, too quiet, too still on the table and Dean stared at her face, watching for some sign of life, movement, anything. She was breathing, her heart was beating, but this was the first time he’d ever seen Faith this still. She was usually so full of life that it was scary to not even be able to wake her.

The crash of a door slamming open had Dean on his feat, gun drawn before the voice roared Faith’s name. A moment later, Clay’s voice sounded again, only slightly quieter.

“Where the hell is she? Where’s my daughter!?”

There was a murmur of voices, Gemma’s louder than the others and then the door opened and Faith’s father stepped into the room. Dean set the gun down and watched as the older man moved quietly to Faith’s side, his eyes taking in the sheet that had been pulled up over her breasts, since the bandage made putting a shirt on her almost impossible. Clay’s sharp gaze took in the stillness of her form and Dean saw something on the other man’s face, something raw and private and he stepped back. He watched Clay pull up a chair and sit down beside the table and then he left the room, silently, leaving Faith alone with her father.

~*~

_ “Clay, you have to come home,” Gemma said over the phone. _

_ “Can it wait? We’re in the middle of-“ he began but she cut him off. _

_ “Faith’s hurt.” _

_ “What do you mean, Faith’s hurt? How hurt?” he asked after a heartbeat of silence. _

_ “Clay, she’s been shot,” Gemma told him and he felt something in his chest clench, painfully. _

_ “We’re coming. Tell her I’m coming,” he said, then hung up the phone. _

He didn’t remember most of the ride home. It was pretty much a blur. He knew Tig and Juice had been flanking him and Chibs had been behind him, as much to keep him on the road as anything else. Thirty miles seemed like three hundred and by the time they pulled into the clubhouse lot, Clay actually found himself begging a nameless higher power that his daughter was still alive.

“Faith!” he’d roared, coming into the building, with the crazy, off the wall hope that she’d come sauntering out with one of those smirks on her face and tell him to calm the fuck down, she was right there. She didn’t appear, though. Gemma, Jax and a woman-  _ was it Tara Knowles? _ \- had come into view. “Where the hell is she? Where’s my daughter?” he demanded and Gemma stepped forward, taking Clay’s hands in her own.

“She’s been shot in the chest, Clay. She’s alive, but she’s not conscious. The doc says she’s gonna be okay, though.”

“Dean’s with her, in the back room,” Jax said and Clay squeezed Gemma’s hands once before releasing them and making his way down the hall. His heart was thumping so loud in his chest that he was sure they could all hear it as he pushed open the door. Dimly, he saw Dean, his gun drawn but hanging at his side. The younger man stepped aside when Clay came forward.

Faith’s lips were pale, her face pasty under her tan and there was dried blood in her hair. He didn’t know why that bothered him, but it did. The sheet, pulled up over her body and draping down the sides of the table brought to mind bodies in a morgue and Clay shoved the thought away. Faith was alive. Her chest moved with each breath and Gemma said she was going to be okay. The trashcan near the table, though, was full to the brim with bloody gauze, white cloth saturated a deep red with her blood. It was a lot of blood, too much for one person, for  _ this  _ person, for  _ Faith  _ to lose. There would be more, spilled on the ground, or wherever this had happened and Clay realized in that moment that if his daughter wasn’t the Slayer, if she hadn’t had this horrible calling forced on her, she wouldn’t be alive. Without the added strength and healing abilities of her position, Faith would have bled out and died and a part of Clay would have gone with her. Rage crept over him then and he embraced it. It was a familiar emotion, one he was intimately acquainted with and his movements were tightly controlled when he bent and brushed his lips over Faith’s cool forehead.

“You get better, baby,” he told her. “I’m gonna go find out who did this to you.”

And when he did, Daddy was going to make him pay.

~*~

Jax watched in silence as his mother thanked Tara for helping them, a little stiffly, but sincere and somewhere in the part of his brain that was still working, he marveled at it. Tara had been the one, the girl of this dreams, his first love when they were kids and when she left town after high school, it had shattered him. His entire world had gone with her and Gemma had never forgiven Tara for that. Losing her had colored everything in Jax’s life after that and it wasn’t until Jax met Dawn that he’d truly let go of that pain. Jax had been sure that when his mother found out Tara was back in town that she’d go on the war path, certain that Tara wanted Jax back in her life, or that her presence in Charming would hurt him. It seemed, though, that while there were a lot of memories attached to Tara, Jax was well and truly over her and that Gemma was able to see Tara for the competent doctor that she’d become, instead of the runaway girl that broke her son’s heart. The heart that seemed to be missing at the moment.

Ever since the moment he realized Dawn was gone, there’d been a hollow place in his chest, a big aching hole and when he thought about it, it was hard to breathe.

_ “Kevin,”  _ Faith had said _. “Shot her with some kind of dart and took her.” _

Helplessness wasn’t something Jax dealt with well. He had no idea where to look, no way to find her, no clues, nothing. On top of that, there was his sister, lying too still on the table in the back room. She’d live, he trusted Tara on that, but there was nothing Jax could do to help her. Nothing except find the bastard that had put a bullet in her and make him pay for it.

~*~

Clay found Gemma and Jax sending the doctor on her way. He waited until she was gone before speaking.

“Who did this?”

They both turned and Gemma looked truly pissed when she answered.

“That little puke, Kevin,” she told him. “He ambushed them on the side of the road outside Lodi, shot Faith and then shot Dawn with some kind of tranq dart.”

“Dawn?” Clay said, startled. “She okay?”

“We don’t know. He took her,” Jax said and Clay could hear the anger held tightly in check in his voice.

“Then we’ll get her back. Where do we find the little bastard?” Clay asked.

~*~

Clay was pissed, to say the least, when he found out they had no way to locate Kevin or Dawn. Helpless was not a good look for him and he ended up punching a few holes in the wall before Gemma talked him into going back to sit with Faith for a while. They wanted someone with her at all times until she woke up, in case she took a turn for the worse.

Jax wasn’t much better off, but he used his pent up anger as extra energy to pester the Winchester brothers for help. Dean and Sam were more than willing, but had no idea where to start.

“Come on, you guys have to have some kind of magic locator spell thing, right?” Jax demanded and Dean rolled his eyes. Sam sighed.

“Actually, there is a locator spell, several of them, but I don’t know how to do any of them without written instructions or someone telling me what to do. Dawn is the one who knows how to do this stuff by heart. I’ve already left six messages for Bobby, asking for help, but he must be on a job because he hasn’t called back,” Sam said, trying to calm the angry biker.

“What about those Council people? Couldn’t they help?” Gemma asked, coming up behind them.

“Maybe, but I’m not sure we should call them until we talk to Faith,” Sam said, uncertainly.

“Why the hell not? If they can help-“ Jax began, but Dean stopped him.

“Dude! Settle down. I know you’re pissed but we have to have the facts before we do anything. From what we do know about the Council, they’ve managed to screw up both Faith and Dawn’s lives over and over again, sometimes on purpose, sometimes by accident. It’s a really bad idea, contacting these assholes, at least until we talk to Faith.”

“I don’t need your permission, Dean,” Jax said, darkly.

“Actually, ya do,” Dean said, defiance making his eyes glint and putting an infuriating smirk on his face. “I have Faith’s phone stashed and that’s the only numbers for Council members that we have.”

“Get the phone, Winchester,” Jax ordered and Dean snorted.

“Yeah, right.”

  
Sam bit back a groan at the oncoming fight, but once again, Gemma stepped in to save the day.

“Jackson!” she said, sharply and his head snapped toward her. “You gotta stop this before you make it all worse. Faith will wake up soon. We’ll find Dawn. It’ll be okay.”

“But-“

“No buts! Just stop,” Gemma told him and Jax fell silent.

~*~

Antiseptic and iodine.  _ Doctors _ . The metallic smell of copper.  _ Blood _ . Leather and cigars.  _ Dad _ .

Faith opened her eyes, squinting at the brightness of the lights. A large hand held her fingers and she knew the feel of those calluses, built from years of riding a motorcycle. With a little effort, she turned her head, blinking at the sight of him with his head bowed, eyes closed, misery etched in every line of his face.

“Dad?” Her voice came out hoarse and scratchy and Clay’s eyes flew open.

“Faith,” he said, squeezing her hand and leaning forward.

“How-“ she started to say, but her voice gave out. Frowning, she cleared her throat, swallowed and tried again. “How long has it been?”

“About twelve hours,” he told her and she cursed under her breath.

“Dawn?” she asked.

“Still missing. We’ve been waiting for you.”

“Why?”

“Jax wants to contact the Council for help.”

That had Faith struggling to sit up and Clay trying to keep her still.

“No freaking way! Don’t you dare!” she shouted, fighting him.

“Stop, baby, it’s okay! We haven’t! We can’t,” he told her and she calmed down a little. “Dean won’t give up your phone.”

Faith let her head fall back on the pillow in relief and had to smile a little.

“Good man,” she said. Then she tried to sit up again.

“What are you doing? You’re going to tear the stitches,” Clay told her but Faith shook her head.

“I’ll be okay. Just gotta get on my feet,” she told him, stubbornly. She managed to sit upright, her legs hanging over the side of the table, before she realized that the sheet she was holding up to her chest was the only thing she was wearing besides panties.

“Um, clothes?”

~*~


	13. Chapter 13

~*~

If someone had asked Kevin before he took Dawn, he would have said that it didn’t matter, that his actions would be the same. He would’ve sworn that finding out she was pregnant would make no difference. He would also have been lying.

She was lying there on the metal cot with its thin, stained mattress, handcuffed to the pipes on the wall behind her. Her eyes were bright and burning with rage, despite the tearstains that streaked her cheeks. There was anger and defiance in every line of her body, from the stiff set of her shoulders to her knees pressed tightly together. The flowered sundress was torn, showing the lacy edge of her bra, but the rest of it hugged her curves, including the now obvious swelling of her stomach.

Realizing she was pregnant had given Kevin a hell of a shock and for the longest time, he’d simply stared at her, wondering what the hell he was supposed to do. He had already contacted the Sathari from his cell phone in the car. They were traveling to Charming over the next few nights, so Kevin had some time to try to come to terms with what he had to do. He had to hand over Dawn, who’d always been the victim and that was something he’d resigned himself to. Finding out that he was also giving the life of an unborn child had been an unpleasant shock. It made him want to rethink his decision, but he couldn’t, not if he wanted to live. The Sathari would destroy him if he failed to deliver Dawn to them and he doubted that they’d be willing to wait until she gave birth.

In the battle between his guilt and his desire to survive, his survival instinct won out and he swallowed the guilt down as deeply as possible. Steeling himself, he turned away from the pregnant girl tied to the bed and walked out of the room.

~*~

Dawn watched Kevin leave the room and fought not to cry again. She couldn’t stand the way she seemed to melt into a gooey mess of tears every time she let down her guard. It made her feel weak and she hated it. She wanted Faith and Jax. She wanted Dean and Sam and Clay and Juice and Opie and Gemma and…

Dawn closed her eyes and swallowed down the urge to scream in frustration. She had to keep it together, find a way out. She’d seen Kevin smash her cell phone. They wouldn’t be able to turn on the GPS. She was pretty sure Kevin didn’t know how to ward against locator spells, but Faith and the others had no way of getting a hold of a spell. Unless they called the Council, called Buffy. That was so not a good idea.

She’d heard Kevin on his phone, speaking in a strange language. It sounded familiar, but most demon languages did, since she’d spent so much time studying them. All she could guess was that Kevin was working with some kind of demon and they wanted her for some reason. Most likely because she was the Key. Which meant blood and that was never good, especially not now. She glanced down at her stomach, at the swelling under her dress. It wasn’t just about her anymore. If they bled her, her baby was going to suffer as well.

Dawn tugged against the handcuffs again, tried to slip her hand through the steel. She pulled until it cut into her skin and blood started dripping down her arm. Tears stung her eyes and this time she didn’t bother blinking them away.

~*~

“About time, Lehane. Thought you were gonna sleep all damn week.”

Faith, her fingers gripping her father’s arm for balance, had to smile a little. The thickness of Dean’s voice betrayed the casualness of his words, but then, that was just Dean’s way.

“Sorry ‘bout that, bulletproof-ness wasn’t in my superhero brochure. I’ll work on that,” she told him, stepping away from Clay’s supporting arm. Dean’s fists clenched and she could almost see him forcing himself to be still and not reach out to help her. Faith decided to take some pity on the man and reached out for him instead. He looked almost relieved as he put an arm around her waist and pulled her against him, steadying her against his body. She was still a little lightheaded from the whole almost dying thing and she just needed to get her balance back. It had nothing to do with wanting to feel his arms around her. At least that was what she was telling herself.

They’d gathered in the common area of the clubhouse, moving quietly because it was the middle of the night. Most of the boys were sleeping still, but Jax had been awake, pacing his room. Dean had been at the bar, working his way slowly through a bottle of Johnny Walker in the silent darkness. Gemma was asleep still in the room she and Clay kept at the clubhouse. Sam had apparently been awake in his room as well because he came out when Clay and Faith came by his door.

“Faith, you shouldn’t be up yet,” Sam said and Faith rolled her eyes and smiled.

“I’m good, Sammy. Slayer healing and all that. Now,” she said, tugging on Dean to get him to move with her to the nearest table. “I hear you boys have been having a stand off while I was sleeping.”

“Yeah, your boy won’t hand over the number that can help us find Dawn,” Jax said, glaring at Dean.

“Her ‘boy’ is gonna kick the-“ Dean began, but Faith held up a hand.

“Enough, you two,” she snapped. “Jax, you have no idea who the Council is or what they’re capable of.”

“They’re capable of helping us,” Jax growled and Faith narrowed her eyes.

“Helping us. Right. Remind me to tell you a story sometime about the time they beat the hell out of me and threw me in a truck and tried to take me to England to be locked up or executed,” she said and she watched his eyes widen and then darken with anger.

“When-“

“Doesn’t matter,” she interrupted. “Dean had the right idea. Now, I’ve got someone I can call that might be able to help us without bringing the British down on us, but it might take a little time for him to get it done.”

~*~

Faith was exhausted and once no one was watching, she was allowed to let it show. Her shoulders sagged and her eyes closed against the steady throb in her shoulder. She took a deep, steadying breath and picked up her cell phone. Dean had produced it from somewhere, most likely the Impala and handed it over. He’d wanted to stay with her while she made the call, but she’d asked him to get her something to eat. He was smart enough to know she wanted privacy, but he promised her a cheeseburger and left the room. Scrolling through her contacts, she found the number she was looking for and hit send.

~*~

Xander Harris was a man who enjoyed his sleep. So when his phone rang at four in the morning, he usually ignored it, unless it was one of a few distinctive ringtones that meant the world was ending. Honestly, though, this particular ringtone almost made him think he was still dreaming. It had been a very long time since “Voices” had played on his phone. He picked it up off the nightstand and fumbled until he found the send button.

“Faith?”

“Xander,” he heard and she sounded tired. “Sorry for waking you up. Sort of an emergency.”

“What’s going on? Why call me? Why not Buffy or Giles?” he asked, sitting up and turning on the lamp. He blinked and rubbed his eyes in the sudden brightness.

“You know why,” she said and Xander said nothing. He did know why.

“So… what’s the emergency?”

“Gotta swear to me you’ll keep it secret,” she told him and Xander groaned.

“Come on, Faith, seriously? I hate it when you do this.”

“Sorry, man, but Buffy and the others can’t find out about this,” Faith said and Xander heaved a sigh.

“Okay! Crap, but okay,” he agreed.

“Good. I need you to find a locator spell for me,” she told him and Xander went still.

“Why?” he asked, hoping like hell it wasn’t what he thought.

“’Cause it’s Tuesday.”

“Oh, hell,” Xander groaned. “Not only to I have to keep secrets from Buffy, but I have to keep secrets about Dawn being in trouble!? That is so not fair, Faith!”

“Yeah, well, if Buffy hadn’t tried to hire her a damned boyfriend we wouldn’t be here,” Faith snapped.

“What? Wait a minute, Kevin did this? Kevin took her? Why?” Xander demanded.

“Good question. Get me that spell and when we get her back, I’ll let you know,” she said and then he was listening to dead air.

~*~


	14. Chapter 14

~*~

“Why are you doing this?”

Kevin looked up at Dawn’s voice. She was staring at him, her face carefully blank. She’d already gone through the whole spectrum of emotions from rage to tears to stunned silence and the sound of her speaking had startled him. She sounded calm, serene and he met her blue eyes with difficulty.

“It was money, at first,” he told her, honestly. “And maybe I was pissed and wanted to get back at you for taking off and losing me a sweet job. Now it’s just about staying alive.”

“What do you mean, staying alive?” she asked.

“If I don’t give you over, they’ll kill me. They’ve been waiting for a long time, you know,” he said, leaning back against the wall. 

They were in an old building, just outside Lodi. Judging by the machinery and scraps of wood around them, it had been a carpentry shop or some other sort of woodworking facility once but for now, it suited his purposes. It had a basement under a concrete floor, so no one who happened to pass by would be able to hear a captive scream for help. He’d set up an old cot in the corner and brought down a folding camp chair, a few lanterns and a cooler with a few sandwiches, bottled water and soda. The light from the lanterns flickered every so often with a stray draft that snuck into the basement through a vent somewhere.

“Who will kill you, Kevin? What have they been waiting for?” Dawn asked and he knew she’d used his name on purpose, trying to reach him, connect with him, get him to feel sorry for her and let her go. He did feel sorry for her, but there was no way he could let her go. There was no harm in answering her questions though. She might as well know why she was going to die. Why her baby would never be born.

“The Sathari demons,” he told her. “I found them mentioned it a book in the Council library and did some research. They need your blood to get them back to their own dimension. They came through years ago, when Glory used you to bring down the walls between dimensions and they’ve been trapped here ever since. They just want to go home and your blood is the only way to get them there.”

“Then maybe I can just give them some blood. You don’t have to kill me to get blood,” Dawn said and Kevin shook his head.

“No, Dawn. I’ve seen the spell. They need a lot of blood. Pretty much all of it. I’m sorry.”

“If you’re sorry then let me go, Kevin. Maybe I screwed up your life, but my baby didn’t do anything to you or anyone else. He doesn’t deserve to die, Kevin.”

“I know that! Don’t you think I know that! Dammit, Dawn, why’d you have to go and be pregnant!?” he shouted, losing his calm finally and shooting to his feet to pace around the room.

“It bothers you,” she realized, watching him. “You were okay when you were just killing me, but the baby bothers you.”

“Of course it bothers me,” he snapped. “You’re the Key! What business do you have getting pregnant anyway? Everyone is always trying to get their hands on your blood! You had to know you’d be putting your baby in danger!”

“It wasn’t exactly a conscious decision, you asshole!” she snapped, her eyes blazing in anger again. He almost preferred her rage. It made him feel less guilty than her soft questions. “Besides that, how the hell do you know I’m the Key anyway? Who told you?”

“Rupert Giles,” he said and he saw her face pale, her expression stricken, betrayed, before he continued. “He wrote it in his Watcher’s Diary, one that was supposed to be under lock and key, but I guess it got misfiled and ended up coming across my desk along with some other archives that needed sorting and filing. That was a good month before your sister contacted me and asked me to come to Cleveland. So I guess you could call this fate.”

“Fate my ass,” she said. “I call this a coward who got in over his head and is willing to sacrifice both me and my baby to save himself.”

“A coward,” he said, quietly, then nodded. “Yeah. That about sums it up, doesn’t it?”

~*~

Dean watched Faith in the semi-darkness of the bedroom. She was asleep on the bed, her face still looking too pale against the pillows. He’d been able to talk her into lying down as long as he promised to stay awake and keep her phone in his hands in case Xander called back. She was healing, but it was taking a lot out of her and she had to sleep. He sat in a chair beside the bed, dozing off and on, Faith’s phone clutched diligently in one hand and when it vibrated and rang he jerked awake and almost threw it across the room.

Blinking, he looked at the caller ID. Sure enough the name “Xander” was flashing on the screen and Dean reached for Faith to wake her. She was already pushing herself up from the pillows and reaching out for the phone. He handed it over and waited while she answered.

“Xander? You got it?” she asked, then sighed and Dean swore he could see her shoulders relax a little with relief.   
  
”Awesome. Hold on, lemme get a pen,” Faith said and Dean grabbed a pen and notebook off the dresser, grateful that Sammy had insisted on bringing it to them late last night for just this purpose. While she scribbled the ingredients and instructions, Dean slipped out of the room and down the hall, knocking softly on his brother’s door. Sam opened it almost immediately, still fully dressed and Dean realized he probably hadn’t slept much either.

“He called back. She’s writing it down now,” Dean told him and Sam came out of the room, following Dean back to Faith.

“Okay. Thanks, Xander. I’ll call you as soon as she’s safe,” she promised and then hung up and held out the notebook to Sam. “Here it is, the locator spell. We just need something of Dawn’s.”

“It’s usually best to use a piece of the person you’re trying to locate, blood or hair. There should be some in her hairbrush,” Sam said, while looking over her notes. “I have a lot of these ingredients in the Impala’s trunk but there’s a couple that I’ll have to find in a few hours, when the stores open up.”

“There’s no way to get them sooner?” Faith asked and Sam shook his head.

  
”No. There’s a natural food store in town. The owner is Wiccan, so she’ll be able to help me find these, but she won’t be in for four or five hours still.”

“Well let’s go, we can break in, take what we need,” Dean said and Sam shook his head.

“Forget it, Dean. Her wards would fry us the minute we stepped inside. You two get some sleep and I’ll wake you up as soon as we can do the spell,” Sam said.

“Thanks, Sammy,” Dean told him and Sam nodded before leaving the room and closing the door quietly behind him.

Dean watched Faith, still sitting on the bed, a distant look in her eyes. He flipped off the light and pulled off his jeans before sitting next to her on the bed. In the dark, he reached out to her and she let herself be drawn in, against his chest. In the darkness with Dean, where no one could see her, not even herself, Faith could be soft. The sex between them was great and they both got a little intense sometimes, but in the dark, they could let it be something gentler, sweeter. When the lights went out and it was just the two of them, the Slayer was gone and the girl that was Faith took her place and Dean had only the barest idea of what it cost her to give him that kind of trust. Now, in this dark room, he felt a fine tremble running through her body.

“It’s my fault. I should’ve protected her better,” he heard and Dean closed his eyes. He’d had a feeling this was coming.

“Faith, don’t. You were shot. You almost died, dammit. If we’d have been a little later… look for all intents, you gave your life trying to keep Dawn safe. No one could have done more,” he told her and he felt her shake her head where it was resting against his shoulder.

“I let him take her. I just laid there while he dragged her away.”

“You were bleeding to death, Faith,” he said, running his fingers down her arms until he found her hands. He laced his fingers through hers and guided her hand to the bandage on her shoulder so that her palm rested against the gauze with his over the top of it, a silent reminder of her wound.

“I never should have taken her to Lodi, never should have left Charming, not alone, it was stupid-“

“Enough!” he snapped and he felt her go still. He tightened his arms around her to keep her from pulling away. “That’s enough, Faith. You were trying to make her happy. She needed a break. There was no way of knowing that Kevin would go this far and if a girl needs a bodyguard it doesn’t get much better than a Slayer. No one could have done anything differently. Now shut up about it. Get some sleep and in a few hours, we’ll find Dawn and bring her home.”

Carefully, Dean laid them both down on the pillows, bracing her when she hissed in pain, when the inflamed muscles around her wound protested the movement. It took a moment for her to catch her breath and relax once they were down and Dean pulled the blankets up over them. He closed his eyes and groaned aloud when she spoke again.

“Dean?”

“Yeah?”

“Sorry I got blood on your seats.”

~*~


	15. Chapter 15

~*~

When Faith woke up again the sun was shining brightly through the window and she knew with a sick feeling in her stomach that it was much later than it should have been. Dean was gone from his place beside her and she could hear his voice outside the door, arguing with someone. Sliding across the bed, she grabbed the first pair of pants she saw, her jeans with the holes worn into the knees and thighs and pulled them on. She was already wearing a tank top, her bandages carefully wrapped and taped under the thin straps and she moved as quickly as she could to the door, yanking it open. Outside in the hall, Dean was arguing with Jax, their voices low.

“There’s no reason to wake her up until we can do anything, dammit!” Dean was saying. Jax opened his mouth to reply but stopped when she opened the door. Dean saw his look and turned to see her standing there.

“What’s going on? Why didn’t Sam wake us up?” she demanded.

“Because he’s not back yet. He called, said his witch friend had to track down one of the ingredients he needs for the locator spell,” Dean said, rubbing his forehead, looking frustrated and tired.

“I wanted to wake you but your pit bull here would let me,” Jax growled and Dean turned a glare on him.

“She needs as much sleep as possible so she can heal, jackass! In case you missed it, your sister was freaking  _ shot _ yesterday!” Dean snarled and Jax had the grace to flinch and look just a little bit contrite.

“No one missed it, Winchester,” Jax said, leveling a stare at Dean. “But she’s alive and she’s here. You can see her, touch her, know she’s okay. Dawn is still out there somewhere and no one can tell me if she’s even breathing.”

“Enough,” said Faith, sharply, closing her eyes against the headache that was building. She took a deep breath, then opened them again, looking at Jax.

“We’re all worried about Dawn, Jax, but she  _ is _ alive. We  _ will _ find her and both she and the baby will be fine,” Faith promised him.

“How can you know that?” Jax asked and there was a hint of desperation in his voice.

“If Kevin wanted her dead, he’d have just shot her when he shot me. He wants her for something else and since the world is still pretty much intact, her blood hasn’t been used in any major spells yet,” she told him.

“She’s that powerful?” Dean asked and Faith nodded, turning to look at him.

“Yeah. Her blood can melt dimensions. No one is going to be using it for your garden variety magical mischief. Now, how long did Sam say it was going to be?”

“He said they’d be as fast as they could but it could take a few hours. That was about an hour ago,” Dean told her.

“Okay. We need to call Dad, get him and the boys together. I want us to be ready to roll as soon as we can.”

“I’ll call Clay,” Jax said. “He just ran home to take a shower and change his clothes.”

“You need to get something to eat before he gets here,” Dean told her and shook her head.

“Not hungry.”

“Tough shit. You’ll heal faster if you get some food in you. Now get your ass to the kitchen before I carry you there,” Dean said and Faith wrinkled her nose at him.

“Are you mother henning me? Isn’t that Sammy’s job?”

“Yeah, well, he’s not here right now, so I’m all you got,” Dean told her, giving her a gentle shove toward the kitchen.

Grumbling, Faith gave in and Dean followed her down the hall as Jax pulled out his cell phone and dialed Clay’s number.

~*~

It was one o’clock in the afternoon before Sam arrived back at the clubhouse, looking harried and weary, but carrying a paper bag with all the ingredients they would need for the locator spell. Faith got to her feet the moment he walked in the door and Dean shouted Jax’s name. Jax and Clay had been gathering the weapons in the back room and came quickly down the hall.

“Are we ready?” Jax asked and Sam nodded.

“Yeah, give me five minutes to set up,” he told them.

~*~

Dawn felt sick. Her stomach rolled and her head spun and she fought back the horrible urge to cry. Kevin had left the basement around a half hour ago to use his cell phone, muttering something about forgetting his cloaking spell and strangely enough, she sort of wished he’d hurry up and get back. It was awful to feel this bad and be completely alone, even if her only available company was slime of the lowest order.

Her head came up when the door opened and Kevin stepped back inside the room. He gave her a long glance as he moved across the cement floor.

“You don’t look so good, Dawn,” he told her and she snorted.

“How nice of you to notice,” she said, glaring. “Getting kidnapped does horrible things to a girl’s stomach.”

“I’ll get you a bucket,” he muttered, shuffling off to a far corner of the basement. She heard some clanging and banging, things being moved around and then he reappeared, carrying an ancient plastic bucket with some sort of unnamable substance caked all over it. She made a face and he saw it and shrugged.

“Sorry, it’s the only one I could find.”

Dawn stared at the filthy bucket when Kevin set it near her and her stomach did a dangerous flip-flop.

“Um, you want something to eat?” she heard and she looked up at Kevin, eyes wide.

“What?”

“I said are you hungry? I have some sandwiches,” he told her and Dawn’s eyes narrowed. The guilt was written all over Kevin’s face, in his body language, his voice.

“It’s almost time, isn’t it?” she asked and Kevin nodded.

“Yeah. They’ll be here in an hour or two, it’s almost dark,” he said and the misery in his voice was real.

“You don’t have to do this, Kevin. There’s still time to get away from here,” Dawn said, desperately.

“No, there isn’t. They can find me, doesn’t matter where I run. If I don’t do this now, I’m a dead man,” Kevin said, turning away from her.

Dawn watched him sit down his shoulders slumped, but his jaw set. He didn’t want to do this, but he was going to go through with it and fear crept over her, making her chest hurt and her limbs shake. An hour or two. That was how much longer she and her baby had to live.

~*~


	16. Chapter 16

~*~

Dean had heard the expression “swearing like a sailor” but whoever had coined the phrase had obviously never heard a Slayer or a biker fly off at the mouth. Jax and Faith were both up in arms the moment the light on Sam’s map blinked out.

“What the fuck happened!?” Jax was shouting again and Sam sighed.

“They’ve done a suppressing spell to hide her from magic or something similar.”

“So what do we do now?” Faith demanded, her voice loud over the roar of the engines. They were gathered in a circle of motorcycles and the Impala on a dirt road outside of Lodi. They’d followed the moving light on the map to this point and then it had vanished, leaving them sitting next to a dilapidated old bridge.

“This is the old Lodi warehouse district, from about twenty years ago,” Clay said, looking around them. “There was a flood and this bridge went out. Took them too long to rebuild it and everyone went out of business. There’re about fifty empty warehouses on the other side of that bridge, all of them abandoned and the perfect place to stash a hostage.”

“We know she’s in the area, I guess we start searching building by building,” Dean said and Jax nodded, tightly. The motorcycles pulled away and drove across the bridge in sets of two, splitting off in different directions on the other side and Dean followed in the Impala, Sam in the back seat and Faith tense in the front beside him.

~*~

Dawn eyed the sliver of window that she could see with a growing sense of dread. The light was fading and from what she could gather, the Sathari demons would arrive with nightfall and any hope she had of surviving this would be gone. Biting her lip, she prayed to every deity she could think of to hear the rumble of motorcycles or the deep growl of a ‘67 Impala’s engine.

“They’ll be here soon,” came Kevin’s voice and she turned a glare on him.

“I got that, thanks for the reminder,” she said, angry that her voice sounded shaky and rough.

“I’m really sorry about this, Dawn,” he said and Dawn stared at him, incredulous.

“Dammit, Kevin, if you’re sorry then let me go before it’s too late!”

“I can’t do that,” he said and Dawn nearly screamed in frustration. The scuffing sound of a footstep from above made her pause though, her heart pounding in her chest. Kevin looked up at the ceiling as well.

“They’re here.”

~*~

Faith was itching to put her fist through something, preferably Kevin’s face. She cracked her knuckles again and sat back in the Impala’s seat. She’d be relegated to the car by her father, her brother and Dean after stomping through six different abandoned warehouses and coming up empty. She’d never admit it to any of them, but her shoulder was throbbing and there had been a few shaky moments when she thought she might pass out. The phone vibrating in her pocket almost made her jump out of her skin. She snatched it out and answered it.

“Yeah?”

“We got some activity over here,” came Juice’s voice and Faith’s breath caught.

“What kind of activity? And Juice if you tell me it’s a bunch of teenagers having a party I’m going to-“

“It’s a bunch of guys in gray robes, heading into one of the old woodworking factories,” Juice said, interrupting before she could finish her threat and a fierce grin crossed Faith’s face.

“We’ll be right there, keep your eye on them,” she ordered before hanging up and then she stuck her head out the window and shouted for Dean. He appeared in the doorway of the factory where he and Jax had just disappeared.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Juice just called, we have demon activity about two miles down the road. He and Tig are on them, but we need to get over there,” she said and he nodded, turning back and relaying the message to Jax. It only took a moment for the two of them to jog back to the Impala and Dean started the engine, pulling quickly onto the dirt road while Faith called Clay, who was out with Sam searching another section and Jax called Happy, who had joined them and was partnered up with Chibs for the search. They gave the location of the demons and then there was nothing left to do but hope they weren’t too late.

~*~

The Sathari were tall, scaly and wore long gray robes that brushed the dusty floor when they walked. Dawn watched them descend the stairs into the basement with a frozen knot of terror in the pit of her stomach. One of them began speaking to Kevin in their language and Dawn focused on breathing in and out. There was still time, she was still alive and she couldn’t give up hope, not yet. Jax would move Heaven and Hell to find her and he had all the power and connections of SAMCRO backing him. Dean and Sam would find a way to help them and Faith… Dawn faltered in her mental pep-talk when she remembered Faith’s broken, bleeding body lying across the Impala’s seat. Faith wouldn’t be coming to save her, not this time. A sob choked her and she forced it down. There would be time to cry for Faith, she promised herself, after she got out of this mess.

~*~

“Silent, slow,” Faith said again, staring hard at Jax, her father and the others. She didn’t need to warn Dean and Sam, they’d been hunting demons for even longer than she had, but the others had never done this before. 

“Most demons have killer senses, so scuffing footsteps, creaking floorboards, they’ll hear it and be ready for us. One wrong move and we lose the advantage and that could mean someone’s life,” she told them and she didn’t have the mention that that someone would most likely be Dawn.

“We got it, Faith, but we gotta get in there,” Jax told her and Faith took a breath before nodding and sending her family into danger.

Dean and Sam led the way in, then Jax and Clay, Tig and Juice, Chibs and Happy and Faith brought up the rear. It had been Clay’s idea, trying to keep her from the worst of the fighting and she’d been shocked as hell when Dean backed him on it. Angry but not stupid, she’d grudgingly agreed and now she followed behind Chibs, biting her lip and watching the line of men in front of her, each armed to the teeth. These men, they were her family and Dawn was somewhere at the bottom of those stairs which meant that with the exception of Gemma, who was standing by at the clubhouse, everyone in the world that Faith loved was about to be thrust into harm’s way, all at once.

~*~

Dawn wasn’t sure what drew her eyes to the staircase, but she had to bite back a cry at the first flash of a denim clad leg, a brown leather jacket and Dean’s face came into view. He raised his finger to his lips, unnecessarily and Dawn clenched her jaw. The demons were speaking to Kevin still, some of them milling around the basement, a total of about ten of them, she thought and she wondered how many men the cavalry had brought and what kind of arsenal they were packing.

~*~

Jax saw Dawn, chained to the wall and sitting on a dingy cot and something inside, some tension he hadn’t realized was there, uncoiled. She was alive. She was dirty, disheveled, her dress ripped, her skin pale, her eyes huge and afraid, but she was alive. He stared at her for what seemed like hours before blinking and taking in the rest of the room. Sam and Dean were in front of him on the stairs, Clay beside him and he could feel the presence of the others at his back. There was that little worm, Kevin, talking in a strange guttural language to one of the cloaked demons. There was a whole pack of them, milling around the room, looking bored, like they were waiting for something and Jax wondered how long they had before one of them noticed the small army camped on the stairs, almost in plain sight. He didn’t have to wonder long.

~*~

Faith actually winced when the first shot was fired and she cursed herself soundly for it a split second later, on her way down the stairs. The sound of the gunshot had hit her in the gut like an icy fist and for a half a moment she was back in the Impala, bleeding to death on the seats. It passed, though and she propelled herself forward, ignoring the way her shoulder screamed with pain.

At the bottom of the stairs, all hell had broken loose. The men,  _ her _ men were engaged in a full on war, gunfire echoing in the basement, bullets sparking off the walls, demons roaring in an alien language and there, on the other side of it all, was Dawn. Their eyes met and Faith saw the disbelief, the utter shock in Dawn’s eyes and then realized that Dawn had thought her dead.

Shaking off the thought, Faith dove into the fray, literally, ducking under a swinging Sathari demon and sweeping its legs from underneath it with a well-placed kick. She left it though, for someone else to kill and made her way through the madness toward Dawn. As she approached, Kevin appeared at Dawn’s side, something shiny and silver in his hand and Faith forgot how to breathe, certain she was about to watch Dawn die and there was no way she could get there in time.

“Dawn!” she shouted, sprinting toward them, but cried out in pain when a demon ducking gunfire crashed into her and slammed her into the wall. Her shoulder hit the concrete and she saw black and white spots while the pain coursed through her. When she could see again, she saw Dawn, staring at Kevin uncertainly while rubbing her now unshackled wrists. Confused, Faith started toward them again, biting back a cry when a gunshot ricocheted from just above Dawn’s head. She yelped and dropped to the floor as Faith finally reached her and yanked Kevin away from her with one fist in the back of his shirt. She flung him, not caring where he landed and flipped the cot on its side with one hand, dragging it across the floor in front of herself and Dawn so that it provided a small measure of shelter from flying bullets.

Dawn was staring at her again, wide-eyed and disbelieving and Faith smiled at her.

“Faith,” she said, hoarsely. “You’re alive. You’re really real, I’m not just crazy?”

“Well, yeah, you are a little crazy, Dawnie, but I am really real and alive,” she told her, grunting only a little when Dawn threw her arms around her and squeezed. She jerked back at the pain sound and looked like she was going to cry.

“Oh, Goddess, I forgot, you got shot, I’m sorry, I thought you were dead, I’m so sorry, Faith, but you’re here, you came to get me,” she babbled and the Slayer rolled her eyes.

“I’m okay, Dawn. Besides, don’t you know by now that I’ll always come for you? Even if I gotta come back from the dead to do it.”

~*~

When it was over, they had eight demon bodies on the ground, two of them having escaped sometime during the fight. Clay, Tig and Sam all had a few claw marks that needed stitching, but mostly they’d come out unscathed. Kevin’s body was lying in the far corner of the room, his chest laid open by demon claws. Jax took all of this in as quickly as possible before making his way across the basement to the overturned cot. Crouched behind it, he found Dawn holding onto Faith’s hand with a white knuckled grip. Dawn’s eyes were squeezed shut and Faith looked pale when she raised her head to look at him.

“Dawn,” he said and her eyes flew open. She saw him and released Faith’s hand, reaching up.

“Jax,” she breathed. “Is it over?”

He caught her hands and drew her to her feet, pulling her against his chest and lifting her over the cot.

“It’s over,” he told her, stroking her hair while she buried her face against his neck. He looked down at Faith, saw her watching them with a bemused smirk. He held out a hand and Faith took it, pulling herself up and stepping over the cot. She wavered on her feet and Jax realized she was sweating and that her pale skin had turned almost gray. He released Dawn, saying Faith’s name, sharply and caught his sister’s arms to steady her. Dawn turned to the Slayer immediately.

“Faith? What is it?” Dawn asked and Dean appeared beside them, taking Faith from Jax and turning her toward him. He took in her color, the way her eyes were unfocused and glazed and swore under his breath.

“Faith,” he said and she looked at him. “Stay with me, Slayer.”

“’M with you,” she mumbled.

“Really, cause you look like you’re gonna check out, Lehane,” Dean told her, getting a better hold on her. As she swayed on her feet, he pulled her arm around his neck and wrapped his own arm around her waist.

“My ass,” she said, her words slurred. “Slayer doesn’t…” Her voice trailed off as her knees gave out and Dean was ready, catching her weight and sliding his free arm under her legs to lift her off the ground.

~*~


	17. Chapter 17

Dawn insisted that she could walk, but Jax was having none of it, so both the Key and the Slayer were carried out of that basement and bundled into the Impala. Anyone who reminded Faith later, however, that she hadn’t walked out of there on her own steam was in for a hell of a fight. Despite the evidence to the contrary, Faith insisted that Slayers did NOT pass out, not from blood loss or exhaustion or anything else, whether they’d been shot in the chest in the previous 24 hours or not. Obviously, they were all remembering things wrong.

The Sons disposed of the demon bodies, in short by burning down the building they were in. They were incinerated easily, as demons tended to be, leaving very little evidence behind. Kevin, however, was removed from the building and, by Dawn’s insistence, buried. It wasn’t in a cemetery and no one said any nice words, but he was human and, in the end, he’d died trying to release her. She said he kept saying he was sorry and that he was wrong and no, she didn’t forgive him for what he’d done, but he’d taken a step toward redemption and he deserved a burial, not being torched with a bunch of demons. At that point Jax would have given her the moon if she’d asked for it, so needless to say, Dawn got what she wanted. Dean and Sam had already contacted a few hunters and had their ear to the ground for the two Sathari that had escaped the basement. At the first sign of them, they’d be going hunting.

Faith was relegated to her bed by Gemma, Dawn, Clay, Jax, Sam, Dean and Dr. Tara Knowles. She argued and railed against it, but didn’t put up too much of a physical fight, stubborn but not stupid. She spent most of each day sleeping, healing and so it really wasn’t any wonder that she forgot to call Xander.

He tried to keep the secret, he really did, but Willow knew him, knew when he was worried about something. Four days after he gave Faith the locator spell, Willow and Buffy cornered him and he spilled the truth, that Faith had called and asked for help because Dawn was in trouble. It only took two hours for Buffy to have Willow, Xander and Giles packed and heading out the door to catch a plane to California.

~*~

Dawn leaned over the bathroom sink, placing a clip in her dark hair to hold her bangs back out of her face and smiled when Jax appeared in the mirror behind her. She leaned back against him and he kissed the side of her neck, meeting her eyes in the mirror with a smile.

“Hey, beautiful,” he said. “You got plans for today?”

“Gotta stop by the office and sort the mail, but then I thought maybe we could go to the diner for lunch? See if Faith’s feeling up to getting out of bed?” she suggested and Jax nodded.

“Sounds like a plan. Go ahead and head over there and I’ll meet you outside in a sec,” he told her.

“Okay. I’ll check in with Faith first,” she said, turning around and reaching up to kiss him before she started out the door.

“Hey,” he called and she turned around.

“Yeah?”

“Love you.”

Dawn grinned.

“Love you back.”

~*~

Faith was more than ready to get out of bed and jumped at the chance when Dawn stopped in at her room to ask if she wanted to go to lunch. The Slayer swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up, grabbing a pair of jean cutoffs from the dresser and pulling them on over her panties. She pulled off her tank top and Dawn rolled her eyes at Faith’s total lack of modesty. She turned and found Faith’s sandals in the bottom of the closet and when she turned back, Faith was wearing a white, tube-style top with a string that came up from the center of the top and tied around her neck to hold it in place. The bandages were gone, but her stitches were still in. The gunshot wound had mostly healed by then, thanks to Slayer healing and Faith’s color was almost back to normal.

“I’d better let Dean know we’re going. See you outside?” Faith said and Dawn nodded.

“Sure.”

~*~

Dawn stepped out into the sunshine and paused for a moment to enjoy the warmth on her face. She caught sight of a group of people crossing the road to the garage and blinked, the smile leaving her face. She felt frozen in place, her feet rooted to the ground as she watched them approach.

The look on Buffy’s face when she caught sight of her sister standing outside the clubhouse, very obviously pregnant, was shocked and angry.

“Dawn?! What’s going on? Who-“ she started questioning, only to pause when the clubhouse door opened and Jax, Faith and Dean filed out.

~*~

Faith saw Buffy, Willow, Xander and Giles immediately and moved quickly to Dawn’s side. Jax had no idea who these people were, but Dean had met them before and he cursed softly under his breath as they approached. A glance at the garage office told Faith that Gemma had seen them and she had the phone to her ear. It would only be moments before Clay and the others joined them, she was sure.

“Hey, B, what’cha doing here?” Faith asked, casually. Her stance beside Dawn was anything but relaxed and it didn’t take a genius to figure out that she wasn’t happy to see them.

“Xander said-“ Buffy began but was cut off.

“’Scuse me!? Xander did NOT said!” Xander told them. “Xander was pestered and badgered and then threatened with horrible magical torture type things and then Xander cracked under pressure and-“

“It’s cool, Xander. We get it. Not your fault,” Dawn said and Faith nodded in agreement. Xander’s shoulders visibly relaxed and Dawn returned her gaze to her sister. “I was in trouble. Got nabbed again. I’m better now.” Dawn’s tone was wavering, but resolved.

Buffy looked stricken, hurt even, but strangely, Faith couldn’t call up a whole lot of sympathy for her. Driving home the fact that it was Buffy’s fault though, now that she could do for days.

“Remember your boy, Kevin? The one you hired? He kidnapped Dawn to sell her to a demon race that wanted to use her blood to open a portal between dimensions. Way to go with the psych eval on that one, huh? Maybe you should be more careful when you’re picking sadistic assholes to be your sister’s hired boyfriend,” Faith drawled and she watched Buffy’s face go pale.

“Kevin? Kevin is the one that took you?” Buffy said, eyes wide. “Is the- I mean, are you, you know, both alright?”

“We’re fine, Buffy,” Dawn said, her tone a bit softer now.

“Excuse me, I’m sorry but is anyone going to address the issue that Dawn is very obviously pregnant?” Giles asked.

“I was sort of getting to that,” Buffy told him, then turned back to her sister. “What happened, Dawn?”

“You want details, or what?” Jax asked and Dawn rolled her eyes and elbowed him, gently.

“Wait, who the hell are you?” Buffy demanded. She looked lost and guilty and completely confused.

“Jax Teller,” Jax told her.

“My brother,” Faith added and Buffy’s eyebrows rose. 

“My boyfriend,” Dawn said. “And the father of my baby.”

“He’s also the Vice President of the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club,” came a gravelly voice and they all looked over as Clay approached, with Sam and the entire club behind him. Gemma came out of the office and approached from the other side, coming to stand beside Jax. 

Willow kept silent, but her eyes were getting bigger by the second and they could almost see her fighting not to speak. Giles was standing toward the back again, pinching the bridge of his nose as if this whole situation were giving him a headache.

“You are?” Buffy asked, her tone a little less demanding now and a lot more confused.

“He’s Clay Morrow, Buffy,” Giles said, moving forward in the group to stand closer to Buffy. “He’s Faith’s father and, if I’m not mistaken, the president of SAMCRO. Am I correct?”

Clay nodded and Faith gave a half smile at Giles.

“Dad, this is Jeev- I mean, Rupert Giles,” Faith said and Clay took a step forward, holding out his hand. A little flustered, Giles stepped up and the two shook hands.

“Faith’s told me a lot about you,” Clay said. “Thanks for looking out for my girl.”

“Oh, of course,” Giles said, giving Faith a surprised look. “She’s a special young woman. I’m proud to know her, Mr. Morrow.”

Clay stepped back then and looked at Buffy.

“Heard a lot about you too,” he said and the look he gave her made it clear that what he’d been told about Buffy wasn’t nearly as nice as what had been said about Giles. “Dawn, baby,” he said, without looking at her, “you want this person to be here?”

Buffy looked at Dawn and her younger sister met her eyes, boldly. There was a weight in those eyes that Buffy had never seen before, a maturity that hadn’t been there the last time she’d seen her and it was sort of scary.

“Buffy, you’re my sister. You’ve taken care of me and protected me and even died for me. I’ll never forget that and there’s a part of me that will always love you, but blood doesn’t make a family,” Dawn said and she looked at the people standing near her and behind her pointedly. “You betrayed me and right now I don’t want you to be part of my life. You have to respect that. I want you to leave.”

“Dawn, I-“ Buffy began, but Giles put a hand on her shoulder and she fell silent.

“You heard her,” Clay said. “You be out of Charming by noon and we’ll let it go at that.”

“Do you have any idea who I am?” Buffy asked him, her temper finally snapping.

“We know who you are, Blondie. You’re a Slayer. Problem is, we already got a Slayer in Charming and we’re more than satisfied with her work. Position’s been filled,” Gemma said.

“Go,” Clay said. “Get out of town or we’ll be coming for you,” he warned and the look on Buffy’s face was incredulous.

“You know what a Slayer is, then you know what I can do to you,” she said and Clay just smiled. So did Jax and Gemma laughed out loud. Dawn just sighed and shook her head.

“He’s not offering to arm wrestle, B,” Faith said. “He’s just going to shoot you.”

“Excuse me?” Buffy said, startled.

“The Sons don’t play games with people they want gone. They just kill them. Ask Giles, I’m sure he’s done his homework,” Faith told her. She really wasn’t enjoying the look on Buffy’s face… at least not much.

Buffy looked at Giles, disbelief etched in her features when he gave a sharp nod.

“Buffy, don’t fight this,” Dawn said, stepping forward. Jax tensed but made no move to stop her. “No one’s going to shoot you, I promise.” She glanced pointedly at Jax, Faith and then Clay before turning back to Buffy. “When I’m ready, I’ll call you. I’ll keep in touch with Giles, email Willow, talk to Xander. Just leave, before you make this any worse. Please.”

Buffy just stood there, at a loss for words and Giles sighed.

“We’ll be gone by lunchtime, then. Buffy will respect your decision, Dawn, I promise,” he said and there was a thread of steel in his voice that said he’d make sure of it. He stepped forward, awkwardly, as if he wasn’t sure of his welcome, but Dawn reached out and hugged him, tightly.

Xander came forward and Willow and Faith even hugged Giles, quickly, but Buffy didn’t move until Dawn came to stand right in front of her. Then she blinked and started to reach out.

“Don’t, please,” Dawn said, softly, grabbing Buffy’s hands and lowering them back to her sides, gently. “I’m just not ready yet. I promise, I’ll call. We’ll talk. Someday, we’ll get past this, but not right now. I love you, but you need to go, Buffy.”

~*~

Faith flinched when Dawn’s scream pierced the air and dropped her face into her hands. Everything in her was telling her to find Dawn’s tormenter and kill them, painfully, but she sat in the ugly blue chair and gritted her teeth. Booted footsteps in the hall signaled Dean’s arrival and she looked up at him, sighing, gratefully when he handed her a cup of hot coffee. It was liberally laced with sugar and cream, just the way she liked it and she took a sip, wincing when Dawn screamed again.

“How much longer can this keep up?” Dean asked, glancing at the closed door.

“You are so asking the wrong person,” Faith told him. More footsteps had her looking up to see Clay and Gemma walking down the hall. Gemma was carrying a bag in one hand and Faith thought she saw the fuzzy brown ear of a teddy bear poking out.

“How’s she doing?” Clay asked and before anyone could answer, Dawn’s powerful cry rang out again.

“Girl’s got a set of lungs on her,” Gemma said with a grin and Faith had to chuckle and nod. She always figured Dawn’s loud scream came from lots of practice as a teenager, fighting with Buffy.

When she screamed Faith’s name a moment later, though, the smile was gone from the Slayer’s face and she was out of her chair and inside the room in seconds. She stood beside Dawn’s bed, near her head, opposite Jax and Dawn grabbed her hand in a surprisingly strong grip.

“Faith,” she said, through clenched teeth. “Get it out of me!” There were tears in her eyes and Faith had to swallow, hard before she could answer.

“I can’t, Dawnie. You gotta do this,” she told her, pushing Dawn’s hair off her face.

“It hurts!”

“I’m sorry,” Faith said. “I’d do this for you- well, I’d take pain for you in a heartbeat if I could, Dawn, you know it,” she said and even Dawn had to smile a little at the aborted offer to go through childbirth for her. The next contraction came then, wiping away the smile and Dawn cried out, squeezing Faith’s hand. At the other end of the bed, Tara looked at them.

“Okay, Dawn, this is it! You gotta push, with everything you got!”

Faith started to step back but Dawn yanked her back toward the bed.

“Don’t leave me,” Dawn gasped, as she started to push.

“Never gonna happen,” Faith murmured, returning to the bedside.

~*~

Kaios Jackson Teller weighed 7lbs 2oz and was, shortly after his arrival, bundled in a blue blanket and handed to his pale, but proud father. Jax took him hesitantly at first, but quickly drew him close and settled the small weight against his chest. Gemma approached and carefully tugged a tiny blue hat onto his head, embroidered with the SAMCRO reaper. Jax flashed her a grin and then turned to where Faith was still standing next to Dawn at the bed. He crossed the room to them and leaned down close to Dawn before carefully transferring their son into her arms.

“Hey, you, it’s about time,” Dawn said, her voice a little hoarse from screaming. She smiled down at the baby and then looked up at Faith. “You wanna hold him?”

“Um-“ Faith said, but didn’t get a chance to finish before Jax was lifting Kaios from Dawn’s upraised arms and settling him into her own. It was hold on or drop him and Faith clutched him tightly, loosening her grip when he began to squirm. When it became apparent that he wasn’t going to leap from her arms, she relaxed marginally and looked down at him. “Hi, there, short stuff,” she said to the baby and was rewarded with a yawn. Faith couldn’t help but grin and she looked up at Dawn and Jax. “He’s cute as hell, you two.”

“He looks like his Daddy,” Dawn said with a smile.

All of them jumped when the door flew open and a flustered looking Buffy stumbled into the room. Dean poked his head around the corner after her.

“Sorry, I couldn’t slow her down,” he said, shrugging and Faith rolled her eyes at him.

“I came as soon as I got the message. Am I too late?” Buffy said, eyes wide, looking at the blue bundle in Faith’s arms.

“Nah, you’re in time for the good part. You just missed the screaming,” Faith told her, looking at Dawn. Dawn gave a nod of permission and Faith carried the baby to Buffy and the blond Slayer carefully took her nephew into her arms.

Buffy stared down at the baby as she crossed the room to Dawn’s bedside, only looking away when Dawn put a hand on her arm. Then she blinked and looked at her little sister, lying in the hospital bed, looking sweaty, tired and happy.

“I’m glad you came, Buffy,” Dawn said and Buffy smiled.

~*~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks everyone for sticking with me through this, there is another story or two in this series, I will get them posted shortly!


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